Very nice episode, thank you. Couple of things to add. First taking out mint stamps during Soviet period was prohibited hence you’d find CTO stamps outside of Russia rather than mint stamps. Secondly, stamps after 70s are very cheap (with an exception of rarities which were in many cases artificially created as rare in favor of collectors and unofficial dealers). Stamps before 70s are more expensive and probably the most expensive soviet stamps are those issues in 30s and in some cases early 50s (I write only about MNH here). In 90s a decision was taken to destroy ex-Soviet stamps and instead thousands of them were stolen and sold to the dealers by those who were involved - this is why they can be seen today on the market still packed as they were produced 50-60 years ago. Finally there is huge amount of fakes. It’s the whole industry. They are being printed in Sweden, Canada and some other countries. I am able to see those selling naive and very advanced fakes on eBay. Russians use local catalogues and today there are three of them being actively supported. Two of the three authors also hold dealer’s business selling stamps in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Note that many thinks that at least two of these three catalogues de-value or overestimate certain stamps/sets and they do it intentionally. After covid era dealers’ supplies obviously increased so today it’s possible to buy in many places. I personally buy stamps from the same boutique when I visit in Moscow. I also buy from an unofficial dealer with huge stock from time to time. The usual way to value stamp is to name the catalogue and the percentage of the price it mentioned, e.g. Solovyov’s minus 30%, etc. Hope it helped someone interested in collecting Soviet stamps.
Hey Anton. It's possible to get in touch with you? I started collecting soviet stamps but I'm affraid that some of them are fakes. Can you give me more insight on that?
I collect pre modern russian stamps as a way to include my wife, who is Russian, in my hobby. We often sit and look over the stamps together and learn more about her country's history from them. It is amazing to see this because in Soviet Russia, the history taught in schools was apparently very different. Because the Church played such a huge role in many of the imperial Russia events and histories, the state could not teach them without glorifying the church, which it was reluctant to do. So much of their early history was whitewashed, ignored, or even outright changed when being taught. Thank you for this episode. It was informative, even for someone who has collected these stamps for a while. I would love to see you explore more of the Soviet era stamps from the various iron curtain countries and USSR. But for now, thank you for this very informative and entertaining video.
Wow thank you for sharing, Jack. It is interesting to read about the Soviet's education system avoiding the Imperial history due to the church's role, fascinating! Glad you also found the video interesting, even though you are a seasoned Russian collector 😃. Thanks so much for watching!
This video is so great and informative. I paused and thought a few times, not wanting to miss any information in the video. And I also paused once to check my Postcrossing postcards from Russia, I got the same stamps. I am relatively familiar with the Russo-Japanese War; let me tell you why... The then Port Arthur is called Lüshunkou District, now is a district of Dalian, the city where I was born and raised. I am not from Lüshunkou, but I know it very well; I have been there numerous times. My mother spent a few years of her childhood there. It should come as no surprise to you that there are many historical sites about the Russo-Japanese War. My hometown is a very young city, but it has a very complicated century-old history. It was ruled alternately by Japan and Russia. After World War II, the USSR had a garrison there until 1955. We must be able to learn these histories from stamps, covers, etc, such as the Russo-Japanese War, the Puppet Manchukuo, World War II, postwar and so on. When I go back to my hometown next time, I must study postal history there in detail.
Thank you Richard 😊🙏 Yes you are totally right, stamps and covers can teach us a lot about the events whether they are foreign or local. Studying the postal history of a location can be such a rewarding exercise, especially if you have a connection to the area or plan on visiting it. I literally knew nothing about the Russo-Japanese war, so it is interesting (but not surprising) to see that you have quite a bit of knowledge of it. Thank you for sharing.🙏
Thanks for a fascinating video Graham - as always. Russia is a fun country to collect - and you haven't even touched the Zemstvos that I believe are even more exciting to explore than the Civil War issues! Really hope to see an episode on Zemstvos one day.
Checoslovokian stamps have always been my favorite. The way they are printed, using gold ink, drawings that look like copper script. I've never seen a stamp that I didn't like from that country
Hi Graham, great and very informative video as always. It reminds me of an interesting story about Soviet stamps . . . back in the 80's when I was getting a PhD in Molecular Genetics, one of the cool things about publishing a paper in a scientific journal was that you would then get postcards from Eastern Europe (especially the USSR) covered with cool postage stamps requesting a copy of your publication. I wondered why they bothered when they could just use a copying machine - and was told that copying machines were very expensive and hard to obtain in Eastern Europe at the time, so they asked the author for copies (you got a bunch from the journal for a small fee) with little post cards. I loved the Soviet art stamps - big, colorful, and beautifully printed and postally used (most of the USSR stamps you got in those days were CTOs). And for weeks it seemed like every day in lab there would be a few new stamps waiting for me. That is how I started collecting these fascinating Russian stamps - thanks for prompting the memories and keep up the great work.
Fascinating video. I have collected Russian stamps for the last 25+ years. We adopted our daughter in 1990, from the Moscow region where she was born. This video has sparked my interest in the background of these stamps and the periods they were issued. I would enjoy more videos on this subject.
Oh wonderful! Definitely look into sources online as well as books that can assist with researching their background. There is a LOT more detail to what I skimmed over. I have a feeling that this won't be my last video on the subject. Thanks for sharing and for watching the video 😊
Such an excellent video! Stamps of the Russian Empire and Russian SFSR are some of my favorite stamps. There is so much to learn about the history of this part of the world just by researching the stamps. Thanks again for your great work!
Very good talk, thank you! BTW, I am particularly interested in the cover on 10:27 with four charity stamps postmarked 2/II (2 February) from St. Petersburg to Germany. There is a German arrival postmark 17/2. (17 February). The long transit I think is because the Russian at that time was using Julian calendar which is 13 days behind the Gregorian. So the transit time is actually 2 days form St. Petersburg to Germany which makes more sense.
Hey Graham! I've been following you for some time now and thanks to you I got back to stamps after a really long time. I learn something new from your videos every day! Thanks for all the great work you are doing for the hobby! Keep up the good work. Cheers!!
Hi, great videos. I think this segment is highly desired because the majority of movies that deal with stamps are most often based on prices and value. Your movies are like describing a football team WITHOUT highlighting the top scorer. This is what we like in Norway. My long-awaited wish is a report on the Norwegian Posthorn stamps. They are still the longest running stampseries in the world and have been published since 1872, a total of 166 different stamps and new ones are under development. And the variety / complexity is almost as complicated as the Frank / Wash USA stamps.
Wow thank you so much, its great to see that you appreciate these types of videos. I find that I enjoy making videos about common stamps that we all might have versus the rare and unattainable stamps, even though the videos get significantly less views...its just more fun and I can get more engagement from viewers to share their thoughts on the stamps as well. I would love to do Norway and its Posthorn series, great suggestion. Thank you for watching and supporting the.channel!! 😊
What struck me about the stamp you picked and the rest of that set is how well they were produced. They look more like 1964 than 1904. The registration of the two colors is perfect, as is the centering of the stamp. I looked at online sites and most copies were just as nice as yours. Just try to find something like that from other Western countries at that time. To the extent that there were bi-color stamps at all, they generally had one color for the central vignette and another for the frame, not tightly integrated colors as on these.
Thats a really great point! These stamps are incredibly well produced. Something that I took for granted while exploring this stamp but you are totally right. Thank you so much Larry for your support and for watching! 😊
Incredible good and informative video. Been waiting for you to touch on Russian stamps for a while and glad it happened! Also, there's one interesting thing about Imperial Russian stamps. It's called Zemstvo stamps and pretty much meant that a lot of regions in Russia had their own stamps. And in total there were issued more than 3000 varieties of those stamps, which is much much more than varieties of official stamps. It's an interesting topic to dive into as well, and quite unknown one I think, so would be cool if you'd cover that someday! And greetings from Russia, Graham!
Thank you Denis. Yes this is another complex area that would be wonderful to discuss (I wouldn't know where to start 😅). Totally worthy of a video. Thank you so much for watching in Russia 🇷🇺
You are great Graham! Thanks for this and also the other videos, for all the work you do for philately and for the philatelic community! Greetings from Austria!
Another brilliant video! This is the equivalent of a semester course on Russian/USSR/now Russian-again history. You fold the amazing stamp history in so effectively. After I finish my current collection I will consider starting a Russian one. The images are amazing; the history, epic. The two taken together are fascinating. Once again a huge debt of gratitude and thanks for a technically sophisticated video. Amazing "content" as much as I dislike the word.
Glad you liked it! I enjoyed learning about the history of Russia and its philately, it really was a fascinating topic to explore. Thank you so much for your support and for watching! 😊🙏
Great video Graham. In my experience, the most difficult stamps to classify and put in an album come from countries where there has been a civil war: Russia, China, etc. In times of civil war, different factions will produce or modify stamps for their political profit or interest. There can be so many (some with limited number), you need to read some history to make sense of these stamps. I have a hard time classifying my Chinese stamps from the 1940s era.
Oh totally true. It becomes critical to understand the history and the events during those turbulent times to figure out the philatelic history. I spent hours reading (and watching) narrations on the Russian civil war to write a few short sentences about the stamps. I probably learned about the Russian civil war in school at some point, but clearly didn't find it as interesting as I do now. Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching 😊
Thank you Graham, Russian stamps are gorgeous, I have a whole load of Russian stamps I'm still sorting through so finding out about the cyrillic keyboard is so useful!
Thank you Karen, I really love the small Imperial stamps especially. Yes check out the cyrillic keyboard, I feel like I am deciphering a code when using it 😂
Great video and history lesson sir. I couldn't help noticing the similarity of the Russian double headed eagle to the heraldry displayed on the old Austrian stamps.
Thank you, it's always interesting to see the view from the outside. There is a post museum in St. Petersburg, where postage stamps of the tsarist Empire are presented to the present day.
Many thanks for another excellent video Graham. Although I don't comment much, I am very grateful for your work in these videos. I was exceptionally grateful for the link to the Cyrillic keyboard (and other languages). Since retiring 2 years ago, I have been able to rejuvenate my joy in this hobby. My primary collecting interest is classical music, opera, and Broadway musicals. However, since the bug recaptured me, I have added other collecting interests--windmills, diabetes, Rainbow flag, St Nicholas-- to mention a few. I'd also be interested in finding ways to decipher the writing on Japanese and Chinese stamps; if you have any tools to help with this, that would make for a very interesting video
Yes they do!! While I havent gotten the Postcrossing stamp yet, I am really enjoying receiving postcards from Russia via postcrossing to see what stamps they have. Thanks for watching Mikey. 😊
Hey Graham, I love watching your videos, they always inspire me. Thanks for what you do. I just bought 3 of your #philately T-shirts and wear them proudly almost every day! I’m so happy I continued to stay in philately and stamp collecting. Keep up the great work! I always look for new videos from you.
Thank you so much for your support, Bradley! It really does mean a lot. 😊. I'm also happy that you continued to stay in philately, and I'm glad that you are enjoying the videos, Happy Exploring!
Incredibly well done episode, thanks!! I have been a serious collector of Russian stamps for more than 50 years and have a very extensive collection. I just have a couple comments on your video. You make collecting the early Imperial Era stamps sound relatively easy, this really is not true! Most collectors use catalogs that differentiate between varieties of paper, perforations and watermarks. This makes the early Russian stamps much more numerous than you say, they are are huge challenge to collect but also great fun! The album I use mixes in the regular back of book (BOB) material such as airmails, postage due, semi-postals, etc. but has a very large area at the back of the album for that interesting Civil War period that you discuss. These stamps, although most of them are reasonably priced, are very difficult to find. I decided to cut my collection off at 1985 because of the huge number of stamps being issued and I still have two very large albums for Russia. Thanks for dealing with Russian stamps in this video, it's an immensely interesting area to collect!!
It is wonderful to see you get back to the "pull a stamp out of the box" theme. These are my favourites of yours and I was looking forward to what you had to say about Russian philately. I had picked up two albums of mint Soviet stamps that span from 1965 to the late 1980s including souvenir sheets and I love them. There is so much to see and learn. Keep pulling stamps out of the box :)
Thank you Jeff. Yes these 'Exploring Stamps' episodes are continuing in the background, season 4 is just 4 episodes in right now so there are many more to come over the next several months. The soviet stamps from '65 through the 80s are spectacular, a collection that will catch anyone's attention. 😊🙌 Thanks so much for watching!
Your videos are full of new info, enticing trails to follow up on and even ideas for projects, all beautifully presented. This one especially, I'll be re-watching. At one point, I had to stop and run over to my collection...no, this is just a stamp, but this one looks different, yes! this one has the writing on back, it's silver currency! So, goes in my old money album. Huge thanks for Season 4, much fun to look forward to!
👍 Don't get lost in...this is such a nice country to collect stamps from..but this is so wide in the topics of stamps collectable.. (an advice do what you wish but stick to it.😉)
Congratulations Graham , what a great video , very informative . I collect Poland ( well and many other topics and countries ) , and the first stamps used in Poland are the Imperial Russian Stamps due to Poland partition , Finland also use the same design. Some topic that might interest you is the Trans Siberian Train Cancellations , and the Space Philately topic on Russian Stamps. I love the stamps that you choose , but the history lesson is superb , Congratulations
Absolutely wonderful video Graham. This reminds me, I was given a Soviet-era Stamps Stockbook, and the design is so neat and stylish. The tranlusent paper between the pages have a spider web design 🤣🤣. Anyhow, I now use it to store Russian Stamps. Anyhow, again, thank you for the lovely video!!
Such a coincidence because I literally just stared to collet USSR stamps and I then saw your video! Very neatly and clearly made and guided us through the very interesting history of Russia from different perspectives. thank you very much☺️
You are so right about these interregnum periods in a country's history: see Weimar Reoublic and pre-Independence Israel for example. The beauty of collecting these periods are twofold: they are short and they are replete with history. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next history lesson.
Bravo Graham...you manadged to fly over one of the largest philatelic topic possible..Russia..(without crashing😉)...from the ground to the space..A very necessary page for those who would wish to launch in CCCP or previous republics & this stamps collection..! (it was a time younger when I had more than 4K first russ-first republics-CCCP.. CTO..etc stamps! indeed that was my topic..I got lost in the quantity)... As you say ...this is philately...Exploring Stamps...! You have been displaying a really nice part of history through your video...and thanks to philately beeing a vector for and made for..!! Spaciba Tovarich...😉
Thank you Fred! yeah I can imagine getting lost in the sheer quantity of stamps when collecting USSR, I wouldn't know where to begin. Glad you enjoyed the video, thank you so much for watching! 😊🙌
Happy New Year Graham! What a great episode to start off 2022🎉 I knew absolutely nothing about Russia’s postal history and found this episode so so interesting! I have received 2 post cards from Russia through postcrossing and they both have the light green 3 and the light blue 5 versions of the stamps you got on your post cards. Thank you for another wonderful episode Graham! I am so looking forward to the rest of the season 😊✨
Thank you sooo much Sarah, and Happy New Year to you as well 😊. How convenient that Postcrossing postcards brought us the definitive stamps that I was exploring. While researching online I went "hang on, Ive seen these somewhere" ...too perfect 🙌. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Fantastic episode!!! I really liked it!! It seems to me that you skipped a chance to visit Russia!!! 🤣🤣🤣 I really love USSR stamps, they are very beautiful and colourful!!! I have tons of them!! Thank you for the video!!! Greetings from Portugal!!
Thanks for another wonderful video! Like everyone else I went to open up my Traveler's Album and see what I had. None of the imperialist stamps unfortunately, but I did have the "peasant" stamp from RSFSR. It's nice to know more about it and the history. Keep it up!
Thank you for the interesting topic, and I replayed it just so that I could read the very interesting comments - you could do a whole series just on the different Russian eras. How about going back to your roots sometime and do the dead countries of Southern Africa?
Thanks Bev, I could totally look into the dead countries of Southern Africa, I have only explored SWA, and briefly Bophuthatswana in a top 10 countdown... Its on the list 😊
Great video! Russia has great stamps from all periods of its history. I also enjoyed your Apollo-Soyuz video as the US stamps for that where some of the first stamps I bought when I started collecting as a kid.
Terrific, thank you Kevin. I remember having loads of USSR stamps including the Apollo-Soyuz stamps in my collection as a child, they probably stood out to me the most. Thanks for watching 😊
I really look forward to your videos. I think its great that people like you inspire new collectors out there with these awesome vids. I collect only Japan occupation but really love all of your different stamps Keep up the great work!!! I watch all of your ads ih there entirely. Hope that helps with your revenue stream. Got to support great you tubers like your self
Happy New Year ! Great video, very informative and amazing research. At a loss for words. I must see if i have got any Russian stamps in the collection i inherited. Loved the Imperial Russian stamps. And as Vedant mentioned, hope to see a video on Indian states.
I don't collect stamps, but I am always fascinated by the interesting graphics, particularly the engraved versions, and these early Russian ones don't disappoint!
Another great video! Finland, part of the Russian Empire until 1917, also used the same Russian imperial stamp designs but used Penni and Markka instead of Kopecks and Rubles.
Ah great point to share! I didnt realize that they had the stamps issued with a different currency printed. I need to explore Finland's philatelic history soon, thank you for bringing this to my attention. 😊🙏
I own a lot of Russian stamps, one of the most fascinating countries for philately. OK, the huge amount of different stamps is a bit irritating, but most of them are cheap and if you like cancelled stamps, most of them are easy to get. Even the Russians began to collect them and so especially the older ones are more expensive. And the MNH ones till around 1960 and after 1991 are popular. Interesting, that the Russian people liked postal stationaries far more often and they have since the 1960s a lot of with fields for digital figures. Stamps and postal stationaries were in the Soviet Union from the design real communist and some are a bid weird for us western people. On the other hand try finding letters from 1930 -1980 except the philatelistic ones is really difficult. I have some from the Romanov era and 1920s, but later on I have nearly nothing except 1 - 2 letters. Stamps were made for foreign currencies and propaganda. But they are all showimg Russian themes. 10 years ago I had luck and found the number 4x mint from 1858 in a collection. I was surprised, because I never thought that I will own a mint stamp of this set ever in my life. This is by far the most rare stamp I own from Russia. You can do 50 videos for Russia and you have not covered near everything what this country offers. Thank you for the interesting video.
Thats really interesting Oliver, congrats on the 1858 mint stamp! I know while searching for stamps that finding those mint are NOT easy at all... And you are totally right, you could probably just make a UA-cam channel dedicated to Russian philately, there is just so much to explore there. Thanks for watching.
Another brilliant episode. If only my history teachers in high school had presented the information in such a concise and interesting manner. Maybe they should have taught with stamps?
Thank you Chai. While researching this, I wondered if I was actually taught anything in school, or if I just didn't pay attention because I found it boring?... perhaps its my own appetite for history that has matured, but school could really do with some postage stamps incorporated, thats a definite yes. 👍 Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching 😊
Wonderful presentation on Russian stamps. As a banknote collector, I'd been wondering when you'd touch on postage currency. Many countries used postage as currency, even the USA, with encased postage and postalcurrency notes. Thanks for your wonderful work!
Great video. I have an enormous collection of Russia from the first stamp through the four periods up to date. However, I'm not an expert and I've learned a lot from this video. If you want to delve further may I suggest the St. Petersburg number postmarks. 🙏Namaste!
En 1993 tenia 22 años y compre unos sellos de Rusia, me impactaron 2: uno con el zar Nicolas II de la serie de 300 años dinastia romanov y otro de 1991 un block souvenir con la leyenda: "defensa de la democracia" donde aparece el soviet supremo (casa blanca), luego complete la primera serie mencionada. Me costo reunir las republicas ex sovieticas: En 2003 compre las de Georgia, 10 años y logre tener las mentadas ex republicas. Excelente programa saludos desde Chile.🇨🇱
Many thanks for this video as well: my first stamps were from Russia and for a very long time the Soviet Union was the country I had the most from. Funny for a country that doesn't exist anymore! During this video you made me check my Russian stamps several times, and now I know that I have stamps from both the red and white army. By chance a stamp with the image of Tzar Nikolas II was close to the one withe the sword breaking the chain! Thanks to soviet stamps I learnt how to read the Cyrillic alphabet, so I can now recognize the names of some people and places: so I am very grateful to them! Greetings from Italy! :D
Very good info Graham. I wonder if at some future date you could do a vid on Mongolia and the 'tourist' stamps supplied to them by Russia, stamps with animals, places events etc. that have nothing to with Mongolia.
I like to watch every of your videos, this motivates me to make videos about Indonesian stamps, so that the younger generation recognizes stamps again.
Graham, an other great video. Thank you for everything you do for the hobby. I have been collecting Russian and Soviet stamps since the mid 1960s. They are fascinating, so much so that I went on to get an undergrad degree in Russian studies. As it stands now I have close to 5,000. When I started I ended up buying a ton that dealers had advertised as 'used' but turned out to be CTOs. So I am in the process of replacing these with mint and postaly used versions. Will I ever be able to complete the collection, more than likely not as some of the early stamps can be beyond my budget being on a fixed income. the period 1917-1922 is certainly an interesting period but sadly there are many forgeries out there. Keep up the great work and Happy New year.
Thank you Daniel 😊. Really cool to see that stamps inspired a path of study in University. Your quest to find and replace each of the CTOs is a noble one, I can imagine that finding postally used stamps would be difficult, but I'd be curious to know how difficult finding the mint stamps would be. Ive been told that CTOs can be far more common than mint in several cases. Thanks for watching!!
At 9:50 on the cover there is # 867, do you know what this means. I see this on many Kazakhstan covers , sometimes with a number written in pencil or sometimes left blank.
I’m a history teacher who recently inherited a book of stamps from 1890s-1920s. Many of the Russian stamps are present in this collection. Very interesting!
One way to take a look at some others of the Russian Kremlins is to collect the 12 stamps definitive of 2009 from sheet or miniature sheet (reprinted in 2014 and 2015, some in coil too). As usual very informative video; great job!
12:55 Sweet! Now I'm going to have to go through my foreign stamp collection to see I have any Russian money stamps..........or go online to buy some! BTW........I don't recall you doing an episode on encased stamps but if you're up to it.....maybe you should consider it. P.S. I haven't finished watching this video so in the event you talk about encased stamps forgive my pushiness on it.
Well done. The post-Tsarist period is particularly sensitive to many ethnicities under imperial rule who longed to breathe free (even today) and you handled it well.
Thank you Peter. I had to wrestle with the script to make sure it was balanced and neutral, but you never know until you launch it what the reaction will be like 🤞. Thanks for watching 😊
I was sitting on UA-cam going haven't seen one of your videos in a bit so I looked up your name and boom here we are, must have not got a notification from yt.
Ah glad you looked to see if you missed any, yeah apparently UA-cam has been having a few issues with notifications recently. Thanks for stopping by Mitchell :D
Imperial Russia, Tariff International Letter in 1905: 20 kopek (10k postage + 10k registration, valid from 8 March 1889). The cover is slightly overfranked.
Very interesting thanks for posting learned a lot I’ve collected Russia stamps for many years which gravitated me to soviet KGB,NKVD MEDALS AND UNIFORMS.
Very nice episode, thank you. Couple of things to add. First taking out mint stamps during Soviet period was prohibited hence you’d find CTO stamps outside of Russia rather than mint stamps. Secondly, stamps after 70s are very cheap (with an exception of rarities which were in many cases artificially created as rare in favor of collectors and unofficial dealers). Stamps before 70s are more expensive and probably the most expensive soviet stamps are those issues in 30s and in some cases early 50s (I write only about MNH here). In 90s a decision was taken to destroy ex-Soviet stamps and instead thousands of them were stolen and sold to the dealers by those who were involved - this is why they can be seen today on the market still packed as they were produced 50-60 years ago. Finally there is huge amount of fakes. It’s the whole industry. They are being printed in Sweden, Canada and some other countries. I am able to see those selling naive and very advanced fakes on eBay. Russians use local catalogues and today there are three of them being actively supported. Two of the three authors also hold dealer’s business selling stamps in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Note that many thinks that at least two of these three catalogues de-value or overestimate certain stamps/sets and they do it intentionally. After covid era dealers’ supplies obviously increased so today it’s possible to buy in many places. I personally buy stamps from the same boutique when I visit in Moscow. I also buy from an unofficial dealer with huge stock from time to time. The usual way to value stamp is to name the catalogue and the percentage of the price it mentioned, e.g. Solovyov’s minus 30%, etc. Hope it helped someone interested in collecting Soviet stamps.
Some really great points here Anton! Thanks for sharing, I will pin this to the top for others to see. ☺️
На Вайбер пиши.
Now I gotta go through my collection again lol i have old 1850s-1960s international stamps
Hey Anton. It's possible to get in touch with you? I started collecting soviet stamps but I'm affraid that some of them are fakes. Can you give me more insight on that?
I collect pre modern russian stamps as a way to include my wife, who is Russian, in my hobby. We often sit and look over the stamps together and learn more about her country's history from them. It is amazing to see this because in Soviet Russia, the history taught in schools was apparently very different. Because the Church played such a huge role in many of the imperial Russia events and histories, the state could not teach them without glorifying the church, which it was reluctant to do. So much of their early history was whitewashed, ignored, or even outright changed when being taught. Thank you for this episode. It was informative, even for someone who has collected these stamps for a while. I would love to see you explore more of the Soviet era stamps from the various iron curtain countries and USSR. But for now, thank you for this very informative and entertaining video.
Wow thank you for sharing, Jack. It is interesting to read about the Soviet's education system avoiding the Imperial history due to the church's role, fascinating!
Glad you also found the video interesting, even though you are a seasoned Russian collector 😃. Thanks so much for watching!
Guys, if you have questions, I am ready to answer. Any questions about Russia/SU.
Can we find russian stamps online for sale
This video is so great and informative. I paused and thought a few times, not wanting to miss any information in the video. And I also paused once to check my Postcrossing postcards from Russia, I got the same stamps.
I am relatively familiar with the Russo-Japanese War; let me tell you why...
The then Port Arthur is called Lüshunkou District, now is a district of Dalian, the city where I was born and raised.
I am not from Lüshunkou, but I know it very well; I have been there numerous times. My mother spent a few years of her childhood there. It should come as no surprise to you that there are many historical sites about the Russo-Japanese War.
My hometown is a very young city, but it has a very complicated century-old history. It was ruled alternately by Japan and Russia. After World War II, the USSR had a garrison there until 1955.
We must be able to learn these histories from stamps, covers, etc, such as the Russo-Japanese War, the Puppet Manchukuo, World War II, postwar and so on. When I go back to my hometown next time, I must study postal history there in detail.
Thank you Richard 😊🙏
Yes you are totally right, stamps and covers can teach us a lot about the events whether they are foreign or local. Studying the postal history of a location can be such a rewarding exercise, especially if you have a connection to the area or plan on visiting it.
I literally knew nothing about the Russo-Japanese war, so it is interesting (but not surprising) to see that you have quite a bit of knowledge of it. Thank you for sharing.🙏
I totally agree! Postage stamps teach us a lot and preserve history
@@ЛоговоИнтроверта привет.🤗
Thanks for a fascinating video Graham - as always. Russia is a fun country to collect - and you haven't even touched the Zemstvos that I believe are even more exciting to explore than the Civil War issues! Really hope to see an episode on Zemstvos one day.
Hello from Ukraine. Best canel abaut stamps. Thank you
Thank you for watching in Ukraine 🇺🇦 ☺️
Excellent video! Highly appreciated how you went through the stamp history of Russia starting out with a single stamp.
Wow! Just wow! You are still the gold standard Graham, I don't really like Russian stamps.....until I watched this video. Awesome, thank you!
😊 Thank you Raul! You are too kind, glad you enjoyed the video!
Checoslovokian stamps have always been my favorite. The way they are printed, using gold ink, drawings that look like copper script. I've never seen a stamp that I didn't like from that country
I totally agree! Czechoslovakian stamps deserve their own video(s). I get frequent comments recommending that I explore them at some point.
Congratulations, Mr. Beck!!!! This is the best episode ! So much information in one episode really deserves standing ovation, bravo!!!!!!
Wow thanks Miguel! Glad you enjoyed the video 😊🙏
I watched the episode for the second time and I am really delighted by the details given. Thank you Graham for the excellent story!
Hi Graham, great and very informative video as always. It reminds me of an interesting story about Soviet stamps . . . back in the 80's when I was getting a PhD in Molecular Genetics, one of the cool things about publishing a paper in a scientific journal was that you would then get postcards from Eastern Europe (especially the USSR) covered with cool postage stamps requesting a copy of your publication. I wondered why they bothered when they could just use a copying machine - and was told that copying machines were very expensive and hard to obtain in Eastern Europe at the time, so they asked the author for copies (you got a bunch from the journal for a small fee) with little post cards. I loved the Soviet art stamps - big, colorful, and beautifully printed and postally used (most of the USSR stamps you got in those days were CTOs). And for weeks it seemed like every day in lab there would be a few new stamps waiting for me. That is how I started collecting these fascinating Russian stamps - thanks for prompting the memories and keep up the great work.
Fascinating video. I have collected Russian stamps for the last 25+ years. We adopted our daughter in 1990, from the Moscow region where she was born. This video has sparked my interest in the background of these stamps and the periods they were issued. I would enjoy more videos on this subject.
Oh wonderful! Definitely look into sources online as well as books that can assist with researching their background. There is a LOT more detail to what I skimmed over. I have a feeling that this won't be my last video on the subject. Thanks for sharing and for watching the video 😊
Very informative overview as well as a great history lesson. Thanks much.
Thank you Bill, glad you enjoyed it! ☺️
Such an excellent video! Stamps of the Russian Empire and Russian SFSR are some of my favorite stamps. There is so much to learn about the history of this part of the world just by researching the stamps. Thanks again for your great work!
Very good talk, thank you!
BTW, I am particularly interested in the cover on 10:27 with four charity stamps postmarked 2/II (2 February) from St. Petersburg to Germany. There is a German arrival postmark 17/2. (17 February). The long transit I think is because the Russian at that time was using Julian calendar which is 13 days behind the Gregorian. So the transit time is actually 2 days form St. Petersburg to Germany which makes more sense.
Oh THAT is fascinating!! I gotta look again at this, 🤯 totally makes sense. Thank you Andrew!!
Great episode, informative, cool production. Thank you!
Hey Graham! I've been following you for some time now and thanks to you I got back to stamps after a really long time. I learn something new from your videos every day! Thanks for all the great work you are doing for the hobby! Keep up the good work. Cheers!!
😊. Thank you so much, its great to see that you are enjoying the channel and the hobby. Thanks for watching!
Your explanations are top notch, congratulations for the well-clarified content.
Thank you 😊. Much appreciated!
Hi, great videos. I think this segment is highly desired because the majority of movies that deal with stamps are most often based on prices and value. Your movies are like describing a football team WITHOUT highlighting the top scorer. This is what we like in Norway.
My long-awaited wish is a report on the Norwegian Posthorn stamps. They are still the longest running stampseries in the world and have been published since 1872, a total of 166 different stamps and new ones are under development. And the variety / complexity is almost as complicated as the Frank / Wash USA stamps.
Wow thank you so much, its great to see that you appreciate these types of videos. I find that I enjoy making videos about common stamps that we all might have versus the rare and unattainable stamps, even though the videos get significantly less views...its just more fun and I can get more engagement from viewers to share their thoughts on the stamps as well. I would love to do Norway and its Posthorn series, great suggestion. Thank you for watching and supporting the.channel!! 😊
What struck me about the stamp you picked and the rest of that set is how well they were produced. They look more like 1964 than 1904. The registration of the two colors is perfect, as is the centering of the stamp. I looked at online sites and most copies were just as nice as yours. Just try to find something like that from other Western countries at that time. To the extent that there were bi-color stamps at all, they generally had one color for the central vignette and another for the frame, not tightly integrated colors as on these.
Thats a really great point! These stamps are incredibly well produced. Something that I took for granted while exploring this stamp but you are totally right. Thank you so much Larry for your support and for watching! 😊
Incredible good and informative video. Been waiting for you to touch on Russian stamps for a while and glad it happened!
Also, there's one interesting thing about Imperial Russian stamps. It's called Zemstvo stamps and pretty much meant that a lot of regions in Russia had their own stamps. And in total there were issued more than 3000 varieties of those stamps, which is much much more than varieties of official stamps. It's an interesting topic to dive into as well, and quite unknown one I think, so would be cool if you'd cover that someday!
And greetings from Russia, Graham!
Thank you Denis. Yes this is another complex area that would be wonderful to discuss (I wouldn't know where to start 😅). Totally worthy of a video. Thank you so much for watching in Russia 🇷🇺
You are great Graham! Thanks for this and also the other videos, for all the work you do for philately and for the philatelic community! Greetings from Austria!
Another brilliant video! This is the equivalent of a semester course on Russian/USSR/now Russian-again history. You fold the amazing stamp history in so effectively. After I finish my current collection I will consider starting a Russian one. The images are amazing; the history, epic. The two taken together are fascinating. Once again a huge debt of gratitude and thanks for a technically sophisticated video. Amazing "content" as much as I dislike the word.
Glad you liked it! I enjoyed learning about the history of Russia and its philately, it really was a fascinating topic to explore. Thank you so much for your support and for watching! 😊🙏
It's amazing how you explained the story of Russian philately from a single stamp 😁
Thank you Mark, this was a good stamp to explore, it gave me a lot to look into. Thanks for watching 😊
Another fantastic history lesson through stamps.
Thank you Ian 😊
This is so amazing, I am learning so much. History and stamps! Two for one. Thank you
A slam dunk as usual! I envy your editing! TRES BIEN!!
Appreciate it!! Thank you Kyle 😊. Loving your videos as well, keep it up!
Great video Graham. In my experience, the most difficult stamps to classify and put in an album come from countries where there has been a civil war: Russia, China, etc. In times of civil war, different factions will produce or modify stamps for their political profit or interest. There can be so many (some with limited number), you need to read some history to make sense of these stamps. I have a hard time classifying my Chinese stamps from the 1940s era.
Oh totally true. It becomes critical to understand the history and the events during those turbulent times to figure out the philatelic history. I spent hours reading (and watching) narrations on the Russian civil war to write a few short sentences about the stamps. I probably learned about the Russian civil war in school at some point, but clearly didn't find it as interesting as I do now. Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching 😊
Every video is a big class about philately 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
😊 Thanks G!
Thank you Graham, Russian stamps are gorgeous, I have a whole load of Russian stamps I'm still sorting through so finding out about the cyrillic keyboard is so useful!
Thank you Karen, I really love the small Imperial stamps especially. Yes check out the cyrillic keyboard, I feel like I am deciphering a code when using it 😂
Great video and history lesson sir. I couldn't help noticing the similarity of the Russian double headed eagle to the heraldry displayed on the old Austrian stamps.
Oh wow, I see that now that you mention it. Whats up with eagles have two heads, apparently it symbolizes an empire. 🤔
Great history lesson 👍 from a stamp from Russia love old stamps from any country 🇦🇺😎
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you Mark!
Thank you, it's always interesting to see the view from the outside. There is a post museum in St. Petersburg, where postage stamps of the tsarist Empire are presented to the present day.
Good to know, thank you for the info. I would love to visit St. Petersburg at some point 😊
Fascinating as always. Will have to keep my eyes open for some of these when the local stamp shows start up again.
Thanks Buzza Wuzza 😊. Definitely keep your eyes open for them, they are wonderful items to collect.
Many thanks for another excellent video Graham. Although I don't comment much, I am very grateful for your work in these videos. I was exceptionally grateful for the link to the Cyrillic keyboard (and other languages). Since retiring 2 years ago, I have been able to rejuvenate my joy in this hobby. My primary collecting interest is classical music, opera, and Broadway musicals. However, since the bug recaptured me, I have added other collecting interests--windmills, diabetes, Rainbow flag, St Nicholas-- to mention a few. I'd also be interested in finding ways to decipher the writing on Japanese and Chinese stamps; if you have any tools to help with this, that would make for a very interesting video
Russia has some pretty cool stamps and has been stepping up their game lately. They even have a Postcrossing stamp.
Yes they do!! While I havent gotten the Postcrossing stamp yet, I am really enjoying receiving postcards from Russia via postcrossing to see what stamps they have. Thanks for watching Mikey. 😊
Hey Graham, I love watching your videos, they always inspire me. Thanks for what you do. I just bought 3 of your #philately T-shirts and wear them proudly almost every day! I’m so happy I continued to stay in philately and stamp collecting. Keep up the great work! I always look for new videos from you.
Thank you so much for your support, Bradley! It really does mean a lot. 😊. I'm also happy that you continued to stay in philately, and I'm glad that you are enjoying the videos, Happy Exploring!
Wonderful video and beautiful stamps! So much history and changes within this area of philately!
Thank you so much! There is a lot to learn about this time period through philately and postal history, it's exciting to explore. 😊
Incredibly well done episode, thanks!! I have been a serious collector of Russian stamps for more than 50 years and have a very extensive collection. I just have a couple comments on your video. You make collecting the early Imperial Era stamps sound relatively easy, this really is not true! Most collectors use catalogs that differentiate between varieties of paper, perforations and watermarks. This makes the early Russian stamps much more numerous than you say, they are are huge challenge to collect but also great fun! The album I use mixes in the regular back of book (BOB) material such as airmails, postage due, semi-postals, etc. but has a very large area at the back of the album for that interesting Civil War period that you discuss. These stamps, although most of them are reasonably priced, are very difficult to find. I decided to cut my collection off at 1985 because of the huge number of stamps being issued and I still have two very large albums for Russia. Thanks for dealing with Russian stamps in this video, it's an immensely interesting area to collect!!
It is wonderful to see you get back to the "pull a stamp out of the box" theme. These are my favourites of yours and I was looking forward to what you had to say about Russian philately. I had picked up two albums of mint Soviet stamps that span from 1965 to the late 1980s including souvenir sheets and I love them. There is so much to see and learn. Keep pulling stamps out of the box :)
Thank you Jeff. Yes these 'Exploring Stamps' episodes are continuing in the background, season 4 is just 4 episodes in right now so there are many more to come over the next several months. The soviet stamps from '65 through the 80s are spectacular, a collection that will catch anyone's attention. 😊🙌 Thanks so much for watching!
Your videos are full of new info, enticing trails to follow up on and even ideas for projects, all beautifully presented. This one especially, I'll be re-watching. At one point, I had to stop and run over to my collection...no, this is just a stamp, but this one looks different, yes! this one has the writing on back, it's silver currency! So, goes in my old money album. Huge thanks for Season 4, much fun to look forward to!
👍
Don't get lost in...this is such a nice country to collect stamps from..but this is so wide in the topics of stamps collectable.. (an advice do what you wish but stick to it.😉)
Oh wow you also have the money stamp 🙌. Terrific. Thank you Paul, glad you enjoyed the video, your support means a lot 😊
Amazing informative video 👍🏻👏👏
Best way to learn history 😊 A lot of research has gone into this video 👍🏻👏👏 Thank you 👍🏻😃
Thank you so much Abhishek! Glad you enjoyed the video 😊🙏. Thanks for watching.
Congratulations Graham , what a great video , very informative . I collect Poland ( well and many other topics and countries ) , and the first stamps used in Poland are the Imperial Russian Stamps due to Poland partition , Finland also use the same design. Some topic that might interest you is the Trans Siberian Train Cancellations , and the Space Philately topic on Russian Stamps. I love the stamps that you choose , but the history lesson is superb , Congratulations
Thank you Bernardo. That is a great suggestion, I will have to look into the Trans Siberian Train cancels. Glad you enjoyed the video 😊
Absolutely wonderful video Graham. This reminds me, I was given a Soviet-era Stamps Stockbook, and the design is so neat and stylish. The tranlusent paper between the pages have a spider web design 🤣🤣. Anyhow, I now use it to store Russian Stamps. Anyhow, again, thank you for the lovely video!!
That's excellent, a Soviet Stockbook for your Russian Stamps! I'm jealous. Glad you enjoyed the video 🙏😊.
Such a coincidence because I literally just stared to collet USSR stamps and I then saw your video! Very neatly and clearly made and guided us through the very interesting history of Russia from different perspectives. thank you very much☺️
Thank you William, and enjoy the adventure as you start collecting USSR, it will certainly keep you busy 😊. Thanks for watching.
You are so right about these interregnum periods in a country's history: see Weimar Reoublic and pre-Independence Israel for example. The beauty of collecting these periods are twofold: they are short and they are replete with history. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next history lesson.
Thats a great way to put it, although complex those periods are short 'short but replete with history.' Thank you Jack. 😊
Another great episode! Learned a lot. I get excited and sometimes fall into that same rabbit hole after viewing your videos.
Ah good, I'm not the only one getting lost in rabbit holes thanks to these videos 😂. Thanks for watching Raul, glad you enjoyed it.
Bravo Graham...you manadged to fly over one of the largest philatelic topic possible..Russia..(without crashing😉)...from the ground to the space..A very necessary page for those who would wish to launch in CCCP or previous republics & this stamps collection..!
(it was a time younger when I had more than 4K first russ-first republics-CCCP.. CTO..etc stamps! indeed that was my topic..I got lost in the quantity)...
As you say ...this is philately...Exploring Stamps...!
You have been displaying a really nice part of history through your video...and thanks to philately beeing a vector for and made for..!!
Spaciba Tovarich...😉
Thank you Fred! yeah I can imagine getting lost in the sheer quantity of stamps when collecting USSR, I wouldn't know where to begin. Glad you enjoyed the video, thank you so much for watching! 😊🙌
Happy New Year Graham! What a great episode to start off 2022🎉 I knew absolutely nothing about Russia’s postal history and found this episode so so interesting! I have received 2 post cards from Russia through postcrossing and they both have the light green 3 and the light blue 5 versions of the stamps you got on your post cards. Thank you for another wonderful episode Graham! I am so looking forward to the rest of the season 😊✨
Thank you sooo much Sarah, and Happy New Year to you as well 😊. How convenient that Postcrossing postcards brought us the definitive stamps that I was exploring. While researching online I went "hang on, Ive seen these somewhere" ...too perfect 🙌. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Fantastic episode!!! I really liked it!! It seems to me that you skipped a chance to visit Russia!!! 🤣🤣🤣
I really love USSR stamps, they are very beautiful and colourful!!! I have tons of them!! Thank you for the video!!!
Greetings from Portugal!!
I knowww, maybe next time I can visit Russia 😅. Thanks for watching Ricardo, glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for another wonderful video! Like everyone else I went to open up my Traveler's Album and see what I had. None of the imperialist stamps unfortunately, but I did have the "peasant" stamp from RSFSR. It's nice to know more about it and the history. Keep it up!
Thank you for watching Lisa! Glad you enjoyed the video and were able to find one of the RSFSR issues. 🙌🔎
Thank you for the interesting topic, and I replayed it just so that I could read the very interesting comments - you could do a whole series just on the different Russian eras. How about going back to your roots sometime and do the dead countries of Southern Africa?
Thanks Bev, I could totally look into the dead countries of Southern Africa, I have only explored SWA, and briefly Bophuthatswana in a top 10 countdown... Its on the list 😊
Thank you very much for such a detailed story about Russian postage stamps and our history!
You are very welcome 😊Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video! Russia has great stamps from all periods of its history. I also enjoyed your Apollo-Soyuz video as the US stamps for that where some of the first stamps I bought when I started collecting as a kid.
Terrific, thank you Kevin. I remember having loads of USSR stamps including the Apollo-Soyuz stamps in my collection as a child, they probably stood out to me the most. Thanks for watching 😊
Happy New Year 2022. Great intro for Russian stamps
Happy new year Roger! Glad you enjoyed the intro to Russian stamps.
Wow, after watching this I think Japanese stamps is also an interesting subject.
Same! Japanese stamps would be an incredibly interesting topic 🤔
I really look forward to your videos. I think its great that people like you inspire new collectors out there with these awesome vids. I collect only Japan occupation but really love all of your different stamps Keep up the great work!!!
I watch all of your ads ih there entirely. Hope that helps with your revenue stream. Got to support great you tubers like your self
Ah you are too kind, thank you for watching the ads, that really helps by the way!! 😬🙏
Glad you are enjoying the videos, thanks so much for watching.
Happy New Year ! Great video, very informative and amazing research. At a loss for words. I must see if i have got any Russian stamps in the collection i inherited. Loved the Imperial Russian stamps. And as Vedant mentioned, hope to see a video on Indian states.
Happy New Year Cheryl! Glad you enjoyed the video, I hope that you were able to find some imperial Russians in your collection. More videos to come 😊
@@ExploringStamps Sadly.. only one eagle coat of arms stamp. No worries. I'll enjoy that one. Looking forward to more videos.
I don't collect stamps, but I am always fascinated by the interesting graphics, particularly the engraved versions, and these early Russian ones don't disappoint!
Excellent - thanks!
You're welcome! 😊
Another great video! Finland, part of the Russian Empire until 1917, also used the same Russian imperial stamp designs but used Penni and Markka instead of Kopecks and Rubles.
Ah great point to share! I didnt realize that they had the stamps issued with a different currency printed. I need to explore Finland's philatelic history soon, thank you for bringing this to my attention. 😊🙏
I thank you Graham for making these really nice videos'.
You are very welcome Charles, thank you for watching! 😊
As always..........a terrific episode!
Thank you Louis 😊🙏
I like Russia because of their literature but i dont have many stamps of them. Thank you for the informative episode.
Glad you enjoyed the episode Sara, thank you for watching 😊
Another really interesting and well made episode.
Thanks Pete 😊 Glad you enjoyed it!
I own a lot of Russian stamps, one of the most fascinating countries for philately. OK, the huge amount of different stamps is a bit irritating, but most of them are cheap and if you like cancelled stamps, most of them are easy to get. Even the Russians began to collect them and so especially the older ones are more expensive. And the MNH ones till around 1960 and after 1991 are popular. Interesting, that the Russian people liked postal stationaries far more often and they have since the 1960s a lot of with fields for digital figures. Stamps and postal stationaries were in the Soviet Union from the design real communist and some are a bid weird for us western people. On the other hand try finding letters from 1930 -1980 except the philatelistic ones is really difficult. I have some from the Romanov era and 1920s, but later on I have nearly nothing except 1 - 2 letters. Stamps were made for foreign currencies and propaganda. But they are all showimg Russian themes. 10 years ago I had luck and found the number 4x mint from 1858 in a collection. I was surprised, because I never thought that I will own a mint stamp of this set ever in my life. This is by far the most rare stamp I own from Russia.
You can do 50 videos for Russia and you have not covered near everything what this country offers. Thank you for the interesting video.
Thats really interesting Oliver, congrats on the 1858 mint stamp! I know while searching for stamps that finding those mint are NOT easy at all... And you are totally right, you could probably just make a UA-cam channel dedicated to Russian philately, there is just so much to explore there. Thanks for watching.
Superb episode!
Thank you Anthony 😊
Another brilliant episode. If only my history teachers in high school had presented the information in such a concise and interesting manner. Maybe they should have taught with stamps?
Thank you Chai. While researching this, I wondered if I was actually taught anything in school, or if I just didn't pay attention because I found it boring?... perhaps its my own appetite for history that has matured, but school could really do with some postage stamps incorporated, thats a definite yes. 👍 Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching 😊
Wonderful presentation on Russian stamps. As a banknote collector, I'd been wondering when you'd touch on postage currency. Many countries used postage as currency, even the USA, with encased postage and postalcurrency notes. Thanks for your wonderful work!
Thats an idea! I should take a better look at countries that have used postage as currency. Thank you David, glad you enjoyed the video 😊
Thank you for this video!!! Of course I do have this series in my collection!!! Such a gret information you put together in this video!!!
Such neat videos... I wish I had even half of the skills in graphics, video, close ups and crisp voice over
Great video. I have an enormous collection of Russia from the first stamp through the four periods up to date. However, I'm not an expert and I've learned a lot from this video. If you want to delve further may I suggest the St. Petersburg number postmarks. 🙏Namaste!
Thank you Rick, I will take a look at the St. Petersburg number postmarks, interesting! Glad you enjoyed the video 😊
Amazing information and amazing episode 👍👍👍
Glad you think so! Thanks so much for watching 😊
Very nice Mr Beck. Enjoyed this very much! Very informative
Thank you Lawrence, glad you enjoyed it 😊
Great story telling. thanks for episode. I was born in Soviet Union in Latvia. Was very interesting to watch video!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching 😊🇱🇻
Love Russian stamps many different ones although the paper used is usually crude the artwork is beautiful!
I am new to your channel and an immediate massive fan!
😊🙏 Welcome to the channel!
En 1993 tenia 22 años y compre unos sellos de Rusia, me impactaron 2: uno con el zar Nicolas II de la serie de 300 años dinastia romanov y otro de 1991 un block souvenir con la leyenda: "defensa de la democracia" donde aparece el soviet supremo (casa blanca), luego complete la primera serie mencionada. Me costo reunir las republicas ex sovieticas: En 2003 compre las de Georgia, 10 años y logre tener las mentadas ex republicas. Excelente programa saludos desde Chile.🇨🇱
Many thanks for this video as well: my first stamps were from Russia and for a very long time the Soviet Union was the country I had the most from. Funny for a country that doesn't exist anymore! During this video you made me check my Russian stamps several times, and now I know that I have stamps from both the red and white army. By chance a stamp with the image of Tzar Nikolas II was close to the one withe the sword breaking the chain! Thanks to soviet stamps I learnt how to read the Cyrillic alphabet, so I can now recognize the names of some people and places: so I am very grateful to them! Greetings from Italy! :D
Very good info Graham. I wonder if at some future date you could do a vid on Mongolia and the 'tourist' stamps supplied to them by Russia, stamps with animals, places events etc. that have nothing to with Mongolia.
Thank you Ray! I will have to look into it, definitely sounds like a topic worth exploring 🤔. Thanks for the suggestion.
Fantastic video! Awesome! :D
😮 thank you DigiP 🙏
I like to watch every of your videos, this motivates me to make videos about Indonesian stamps, so that the younger generation recognizes stamps again.
Graham, an other great video. Thank you for everything you do for the hobby. I have been collecting Russian and Soviet stamps since the mid 1960s. They are fascinating, so much so that I went on to get an undergrad degree in Russian studies. As it stands now I have close to 5,000. When I started I ended up buying a ton that dealers had advertised as 'used' but turned out to be CTOs. So I am in the process of replacing these with mint and postaly used versions. Will I ever be able to complete the collection, more than likely not as some of the early stamps can be beyond my budget being on a fixed income. the period 1917-1922 is certainly an interesting period but sadly there are many forgeries out there. Keep up the great work and Happy New year.
Thank you Daniel 😊. Really cool to see that stamps inspired a path of study in University. Your quest to find and replace each of the CTOs is a noble one, I can imagine that finding postally used stamps would be difficult, but I'd be curious to know how difficult finding the mint stamps would be. Ive been told that CTOs can be far more common than mint in several cases. Thanks for watching!!
Great video. I collect the classic period of Russian stamps and the USSR period. There are many valuable error stamps in the first stamps of Russia.
Awesome!! I saw that there were several errors, I have no idea how common or rare they are. Thanks for watching! 😊
Very nice designs and colors, cool stamps.
Glad you like them! The stamps are amazing.
What timeliness of your video. In a recent box hoard I am sorting I came across perforated Stars Issues of 1922-23. Fascinating!
It is fascinating indeed!! Your timing is perfect, so much to explore with these stamps. Thanks for watching 😊
At 9:50 on the cover there is # 867, do you know what this means. I see this on many Kazakhstan covers , sometimes with a number written in pencil or sometimes left blank.
I’m a history teacher who recently inherited a book of stamps from 1890s-1920s. Many of the Russian stamps are present in this collection. Very interesting!
Excellent! Enjoy 😊
One way to take a look at some others of the Russian Kremlins is to collect the 12 stamps definitive of 2009 from sheet or miniature sheet (reprinted in 2014 and 2015, some in coil too).
As usual very informative video; great job!
Great tip! Thank you for sharing Eugenio 🙌
12:55
Sweet! Now I'm going to have to go through my foreign stamp collection to see I have any Russian money stamps..........or go online to buy some!
BTW........I don't recall you doing an episode on encased stamps but if you're up to it.....maybe you should consider it.
P.S. I haven't finished watching this video so in the event you talk about encased stamps forgive my pushiness on it.
Великолепный репортаж!!!
Спасибо 🙏
Wow....as always.. great
Thank you so much 😀
happy New Year holidays to you. great stamps thanks for the review
Happy New Year! Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching!
Well done. The post-Tsarist period is particularly sensitive to many ethnicities under imperial rule who longed to breathe free (even today) and you handled it well.
Thank you Peter. I had to wrestle with the script to make sure it was balanced and neutral, but you never know until you launch it what the reaction will be like 🤞. Thanks for watching 😊
As a Ukrainian, I listened carefully.
I was sitting on UA-cam going haven't seen one of your videos in a bit so I looked up your name and boom here we are, must have not got a notification from yt.
Ah glad you looked to see if you missed any, yeah apparently UA-cam has been having a few issues with notifications recently. Thanks for stopping by Mitchell :D
@@ExploringStamps keep up the great video's, always a learning experience 👍👍👍
Where did you get the individual stamps/ letters from?
A few different places. www.russianstamps.com, hipstamp, & eBay.
Beautiful!
Thank you! 😊
Great video, Graham!
Thank you Banu! 😊
Imperial Russia, Tariff International Letter in 1905: 20 kopek (10k postage + 10k registration, valid from 8 March 1889). The cover is slightly overfranked.
Ah fantastic! I thought someone out there might be able to help, THANK YOU 😊. Within the hour of video launch as well, I'm impressed.
Very interesting thanks for posting learned a lot I’ve collected Russia stamps for many years which gravitated me to soviet KGB,NKVD MEDALS AND UNIFORMS.