Literature

Tchilinghirian, S. D.; Ashford, P. T.: The Postage Stamps of Armenia. – Bristol, 1953. The British Society of Russian Philately

A extremely solid and systematic work. The foundation of most of the Research on Armenian stamps and postal history. It is very hard to get and prices are quite high.

Ceresa, R.J.: The Postage Stamps of Russia 1917 – 1923 Volume 1. Armenia

Based in large parts on the work of Tchilinghirian and greatly enhanced with a lot of detail from over 40 years of collection and researching. Especially forgeries are described in large detail. Ceresa had thees books printed in private. Its a bit easier to find on the market than the books from Tchilinghirian.

Zakiyan-Saltikoff, Post and Postage Stamps of Armenia, Erivan 1988

The collectors and authors in soviet Armenia were not as free as there colleagues in the western world. The soviets did not like it when national informations were promoted. Zakiyan is the first expert that published a book on Armenian stamps and postal history in Armenia. The book is written entirely in Russian.

Zakiyan, Armenia Postage Stamps, Fiscal Stamps, Postage Cancels, 2003 Erivan

An updated work with less detail on specialties and forgeries. New is the section about fiscal stamps. The book is written in Russian, Armenian and English. Print run was apparently only 500. Its probably still possibly to buy them.

Artashes Taroumian, Artar Catalog 2010

The first specialized catalog for Armenian stamps. Its obvious, a lot of effort went into this book. Print and layout are exceptionally well executed. There are many pictures of stamps and covers. There is also one large drawback. The author seems to be very frank regarding new items and varieties. Were Tchilinghirian and Zakiyan only accept items (overprints etc.) as genuine, when the authenticity can be proven or has been proven, Taroumian lists several new finds without a proof. There are pictures of cancels from Erevan and Aleksandropol which are described by Ceresa and Tchilinghirian as fake. The D.1d type that is listed as forgery in Tchilinghirian is pictured here as Type c.
The catalog tries to correct many of the errors that catalogs like Michel and Gibbons make by introducing new defined prices. I like a lot of this, but her is also some room for discussion. As an example: the prices for canceled stamps where town and date is readable should in my opinion much higher. Also, some cancels are very rare and its important to distinguish between CTO and real usage.

Liapin Catalog 2009 – The Catalogue of the Postage Stamps of Russia 1856 – 1991, Moscow 2008

The catalog also lists the stamps issued in Armenia from 1918 till 1923. Numbering and pictures of the types of the overprints are used from Zakyian. Over the counter productions are not listed, since Zakyian disapproved of them. They are still legitimate stamps that were back then valid and also used for postal services.