Early Russian Stamps?

What numbers do you associate with these early Russia? some current Values? I know, I'll need to look at the watermarks... Postmarks coincide to book classifcation. I would love to know what is ment by "Lozenges of varnish"
I can only see that the second image is very thick/ worn by comparison, and has writing on the back side.




here are a few more:

That's a grungy lot there Barb,
looks like my collection.

The two with corner value tablets are early
they do not have the "bolts of lightning"
with the posthorns

(before the integration of the telegraph dept)

Lozenges are bent skewed parallelograms
similar to a lot of air mail livery on covers,
the red and blue lozenges around the perimeter of the cover

From a discussion in 2005 on the varnish lozenges.
(to prevent re-use of the stamp)


by nick 01.02.05 04:36

Hello, hope you can help? I was referred by the webmaster of askphil. What is the best
way to detect lozenges of varnish on the face of early Russian stamps? In particular,
Scott #'s 137-138c of 1917. On some of the stamps using angels of light shows the
lozenges, on others nothing I have tried works, ex. magnification, watermark fluid,
signoscope, etc. Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Nick

02.02.05 18:16 added by Ivo Steijn

Holding the stamp at an angle to the light as you have done is, as far as I know, the
best method. Under UV light the network also shows up. If you're not seeing any
network it might be missing - this is a variety that's known for all 1909-1919 issues.

03.02.05 0:51 added by Gary

Introducing a high-resolution scan into a photo editing package offers many
possibilities to evaluate such issues as well.

Please send a scan and I will look at it from the "computer's" view. Ivo is correct in
that there are known varieties with the network missing.

03.02.05 13:3 added by Anatoly

Hi,

The first stamp is from a long set issued in 1913 to celebrate three hundred years Of the Romanov dynasty. This stamp shows Nicholas II and was used in Minsk in 1913.

The second stamp is an interesting one. It has the same design as the first one but was printed on card with printing on the back. They were intended for use as a temporary replacement for 10 kopeck coins so they often look grubby like this one as they changed hands often just like coins.

Very interesting,
illustrates why we should never throw out stamps,
they all have a story, even the grubby

Well done Nigel

Nigel,
There are 3 with 10, 15 and 20 on them; so not stamps, but a "cardboard" coin?
Value? numbers?
Thanks.

Yes, "cardboard coins" is a nice name for them.

They were sometimes used as postage stamps so they are listed in catalogues but their prices reflect the condition that you would expect for ordinary mint and used stamps, i.e. lightly mounted for mint, very fine for used.

As you said there are three values and these are listed as SG 165-167 with prices, 10k mint £1.00 used $4.25, 15k mint £1.00 used $4.25, 20k mint £1.30 used $4.25. The Scott numbers are #105-#107.