In one of the last posts I discussed a cancel on a stamp which in turn proved to be fake. Another collector sent me a scan of the genuine cancel on a postcard from 1910. While exchanging mails some questions arose.

Generally we assume that when the first republic established and the Dashnaks took position the “old” cancel devices from Tsarists times were used. Since the reign of the Dashanks did not last very long – between the aggressive Turks and the Bolshevists they had at some point choose the lesser evil – we assume that no own cancel devices were produced. For once there are no cancels with Armenian script (or letters) used in this time and, the own stamps (Paris issue) did not reach Armenia in time to be used by the Dashnak government. On the other hand, devices for overprinting the monograms were produced. And what about after 1921 when the times were a bit less demanding and chaotic? Another finding is that some Tsarists cancels were used before 1919 and not after 1919 while other cancel were not used (or we could not find postal items so far) before 1919 but have seen extensive usage after.

Let us check what we can find about the Alexandropol cancels. I checked my collection and can find the following types.

Alexandropol b

This one is from a cover. I got the scan from a fellow collector. Date used is 11.04.1910.

This cancel is not reported seen on Armenian stamps.

Alexandropol g

Is this a “g” character? Also, this one is not reported on Armenian stamps.

Now to the types used on Armenian stamps. There are three different ones, “e”, “tse” and “sh”.

Alexandropol “sh”

This is the most common cancel. Used on Dashnak overprints and on the later pictorial issues and finally also on the Transcaucasian issue. While I got plenty of imprints on the pictorial issues, the usage with Dashnak stamps seem to be quite rare.

Here an example on Dashnak stamps. The date reads 28.02.20.

Used on First Constantinople pictorial issue. Date 28.03.23.

Also on the Erivan pictorial issue. Date 01.03.23.

And finally on the Transcaucasian issue. Date ?6.11.23.

Alexandropol e

This one is rather rare. It is not on the Ashford/Tchilinghirian list. I found it only on Dashnak stamps. The date is rather hard to decipher but the year is certainly 1920.

I got a handful of more examples – all look like CTO material.

Alexandropol “z”

This one is probably not as rare as the “e”, but still much rarer than the “sh”. Again I found this one only on Dashnak stamps. Date is ??.?3.20.

My examples look like CTO material.

Who can provide examples of stamps or letters (postcards etc.) who show Alexandropol cancels not listed here?

A while ago I posted scans of a stamp with a forged Alexandropol “b” cancellation. A reader sent me scans of a cover with a genuine cancellation. The date reads 11.04.1910. Only some cancels survived the invasion of the Turks and the fire in Alexandropol in 1918. The cancel with the “b” character did not. This proofs the cancel on the stamp showed earlier is definitely a forgery. Also note the crude appearance and the large letters. This is typical for cancels of this time and place.

While looking through material I got to make opinions for I found a stamp with a perfect impression of a 100 ruble HH cancel impression. I never have seen a similar perfect example. This is more rare than one would probably expect. A very beautiful item!

The material is from a dealer, so you can expect the item to appear on the market soon.

Enjoy!

ps: Of course this is extremely valuable when checking overprints. I wish I would have such fine specimens of all the overprints.

In Germany we call prices of goods that are (for our understanding) way above what is reasonably “moon prices” or “prices from the moon”.

At Gärtner Auctions you can find this item:

The overprint is looking fine. The item is ok; lots of folds. Not perfect – but still nice. The catalog value for a single stamp (k.60.k) on 1 Kop unperforated in Liapin is 0.35 Euro. Michel is 7.50 Euro. I tend to agree with Liapin in this case, but still if we go with the higher one, 15 stamps add up to 112.5 Euro. You can apply some factor because it is a multiple. The factor is sometime above 1 – for really interesting and rare items – and sometimes below 1 – the stamps are not rare or multiples are not rare. (Dealer often destroyed large multiples because the could get more money by selling a lot of small items.) In this case I would say it should be a bit above 1 but not much. Perhaps 1.1. Multiples of this stamp are not such rare and the stamp itself is very common. That the lower part of the sheet is not overprinted is, like upside-down overprint nothing really rare at this time. It is nice, but not more. This means a catalog value of about 125 Euro.

If you ask me, I would say the item is worth perhaps 30 Euro. If you find a solvent buyer, perhaps up to 60 Euro.

The auctions house lists this item at 2,500.00 Euro. This is what I call a moon price.

I know that a lot of collectors are not living in the real world, when they think or talk about the value of their collection. They tend to assume some remark in a book about how rare a special characteristic is equates in direct market value. Things are most of the time not as easy as such. The market is not emotionally bonded with the items. For a rare item you need someone who is interested AND got the money. For all items above 500 Euro this is going to be difficult. Exceptions are the famous rare items of the large collection areas. Those often are investment objects.

Besides these single items you can always find moon prices for collections at almost all auctions.

Btw, there are some nice items at Gärtner with low starting prices and real genuine material which did not get a bid…All between 50 and 150 Euro.

Why did someone try to improve this stamp? The basic stamp is from the original printing (genuine!) there is a genuine overprint – most likely a “2” and a nice and clean part of the Karaklis-Erivan a cancel (also genuine). With the ink to the border of the picture and the manually inked 20 its value is zero. It has only some salvage value as comparison sample for the cancel.

The pictorial stamps and the overprints itself are already  a rich treasure trove. If we put our attention to the cancellations used even more interesting diversities and things to research come to view.

Of course, like with the overprints, sometimes things are not easy. For instance lets have a look at the following cancel:

The town name is clearly Alexandropol (nowadays Gyumri) – without an “Erivan” addendum and  the character is a Cyrillic “b” letter (handwriting style).

For comparison the Cyrillic alphabet (snippet from Wikipedia).

This is the Alexandropol b cancel apparently used at the 28 of February 1920. What makes this stamp special is that it is really, really rare. It is not mentioned in the Tchilinghirian and the early Zakiyan book. The are however descriptions of this cancel in Ashford and the current Zakiyan.

This is the Ashford type 7 cancel drawing (it is made by hand).

Not much information is added but the following text:

Double circle date stamp of earlier type (Diam. 25 mm. Horiz. lines thin, 7 mm. apart) reading ALEKSANDROPOL / * * b. Impressed in black.

Two type “b” cancels are listed in Zakiyan #30 and #35. Here the corresponding drawings.

This alone is already vexing. How can there be two different cancels with the same “numeration” character? Like Ashford, Zakiyan did not use scans or photocopies but hand made drawings as well. This is a problem since sometimes special marks (the dent in the Delishan cancel) are not present and we do not know how accurate distinct characteristics, like position of certain characters and stars are.

Let us take a look at the dimensions of the present cancel.

The outer circle is 28.5 mm wide.

The inner circle is 19.8 mm wide.

The distance between the horizontal bars is 12.3 mm. This is rather much. Normally only 10 mm is found.

The unframed Z is 7 mm long.

Now we can rule out the cancel Ashford described because his cancel is only 25 mm wide. Perhaps this is Zakiyan #35 which is smaller than #30.

When comparing the cancel on the stamp with the drawings more discrepancies are found:

• the horizintal bars are thick like with the Alexandropol “Zhe” cancel, both Zakiyan and Ashford show thin bars for the “b”
• the stars are imprinted “weak”, when looking closer they are not weak but just one is present and that one looks exactly like an “x” and not like an asterix (“*”)

• the inner circle looks rather large – in proportion to the space needed for the date much too big

Sometimes it can help to check the overprint. If that one is fake, the cancel is most likely fake too.

I checked my collection and found two overprints which are alike. The second one is to small to be the same one. While I am certain the two other ones are genuine, I am not 100% sure about the present one.

When checking Tchilinghirian I would say the most similarity is with the E.18 type. This is most likely the inner part of the E3 framed Z.

So far I have never seen another Alexandropol “b” cancel.  With all said and done so far, I think this cancel is doubtful, most likely fake. It is vexing that the appearance is so clean and the ink looks like the real thing.

Does anyone of the readers got an Alexandropol “b” cancel? If yes, can I get a scan?