Swindle from 1922
They are regularly offered for sale. Series of stamps titled 'Hunger Issue Odessa 1922'. Both perforated and unperforated. And at what prices? I have seen them ranging from €6,50 to €15 for a series of unperforated stamps and €10 for a perforated series. Sometimes the series is described as a so-called private issue, sometimes as semi-official, while others say it is a fantasy product, or a Cinderella.
Most collectors of Russian stamps are familiar with this series. The design is reminiscent of Art Nouveau or Jugendstil, but that art movement ran from 1890 to 1914. At least, in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe, this movement continued somewhat longer. Why were these stamps issued? Between 1921 and 1922, the population of Odessa suffered due to a great famine. This was the result of the civil war taking place in Russia at the time. Odessa had become the capital of the independent Soviet Republic of Odessa in 1918. But in 1920, the city was occupied by the Red Army and annexed to Ukraine. What do the catalogues say about these stamps? Clear language!
Zumstein's 1964 catalog (I like working with old catalogs because they contain so much more information) calls it a FRAUD. And Michel? He maintains it is a private issue. Do these stamps actually belong in a Russian stamp collection, then? That is for every collector to decide for themselves!
'@ Cees,
Of course, everyone is free to collect whatever they wish. You can collect a country with the goal of making it as complete as possible. You can also collect from a historical perspective, and in that case, these types of issues are certainly interesting. In the GDR, for example, a great many charity stamps were issued that clearly reflect a specific ideology and are therefore interesting. I include them in my collection. You can still find 'Jugendstil' after 1914, for example on Dutch stamps. I find these stamps very beautiful and am very curious why they took the trouble to issue them. 'Hunger issues' do not bode well.
A comparison can be drawn with the stamps of MALUKA SELATAN that appeared on the scene in 1955. According to the Philatelic Encyclopedia, 150 picture stamps were issued under this country's name. The stamps were intended to be used on the Moluccan islands if the Moluccas were to become an independent state. However, things turned out differently. A well-known stamp dealer in New York saw potential in special Moluccan stamps and, through an intermediary, placed an order to print these stamps with the state printing office in Vienna, which executed the order without any problems. Although these are stamps that were never used for postal purposes, they are interesting for enthusiasts to include in a collection as curiosities.
'@ Jos van den Bosch,
In your response, you speak of “stamps” and “issuing.” Those are two terms that do not apply to these pieces of paper. We could talk about Cinderellas, fantasy products, pictures, scams, or whatever you like, but they are not (postal) stamps, and they were never “issued” by an authorized body. According to an article in the French *Timbroscopy* in the mid-1990s, they were the work of a Parisian dealer who, by producing those pieces of paper in the early 1920s, wanted to capitalize on the confused state of affairs regarding the postal sector in Russia at the time. The civil war was in full swing, and there were few or no reliable sources regarding the official or unofficial nature of stamp issues and overprints in that vast (ex-)Tsarist empire. So, that good man simply had some little drawings made and printed himself, and threw them onto the philatelic market en masse in perforated and unperforated versions. There, they became known by the name we can read in Cees’s article. Our unscrupulous merchant thus made a good living off the famine of the population of Odessa. Although they are not postage stamps, they are in a certain respect witnesses of their time, and as such are collectible for anyone with a historical interest. I myself keep them alongside my Russia collection, just as I add some old banknotes, fiscal stamps, postcards, etc., to my country collections as historical documents for illustration.
‘@ Patrick,
I completely agree. That is totally my collecting style too. It’s just not Russia for me, but Germany.