"New" Stamps Of Old Russia - How Did This Happen?

Hi,
Sorry to bug you all again, but as I merge stamps from some old Scott Big Blues, questions keep coming up.

I have a selection of the 1883 to 1905 narrow vertical Russian stamps. My problem is that these "over 100 year old" stamps look fairly new and of high quality. How could these be real?

In fact, I have several stamps - usually from island nations - from the 1930s or so that also look "new". Said another way, the Russian stamps are definitely not isolated instances.

Were stamps like this produced "en masse" for the collector market even back then? Were "tons of them" stored away in vaults?

I doubt I am the only person to have run across this, and wonder if you all can shed some light on this.

Thank you!
Mobilman44

Mobilman----its Sunday morning now ,so readers are looking for stories to read with their morning coffee, and your question about stamps in nice condition begs for a story .
Back around 1969 ,I was playing football in the city park with about 10 guys ,we all had a few beers wrapped in brown paper bags sitting on the side lines too.As the Chicago Police crusised around the park ,they some how didn't think anything was unusal about all the illegal beer wrapped in brown bags on a Sunday afternoon in the park.We used a older guy who was of age to do the beer runs. Since I was one of the few guys who had a decent job ,it was my job to support the others drinking habits . This older guy heared that I collected stamps ,so he made me a offer I couldn't refuse .
He told me his dad had a suitcase full of stamps and would I be interested in it ,my answer was yes .He couldn't tell me what was in the case but it was all new stamps ,the first respond was what kind of stamps ,U.S.? He said his dad came from Lithuaian and had the case with him in 1947.But his dad was now old and sick and its sitting under his bed unopen for many years .
So I started to quote prices and each price was higher than the last but the answer was always no! So it was getting old quoting prices.So I asked what would it take .His answer was surprising -----300 TUN-IN-ALLS {these are blue and red pills , a downer if any of you understand street drugs---they are PHENOBARITIUALS. Great!! were do I get street drugs to trade for stamps . -------well to make a long story short -------I traded and got a small suitcase of MNH issues all in complete sets ,a whole post office inventory or a printers supply of brand new stamps still wrapped in paper ,my guess is that someone empty a post office as the Russian Army advanced into Eastern Europe .I sold off most of the inventory over the years .

I haven't seen tuinal in a very long time! lol My party days are long over but I admire (not condone) the creativity of the trade! lol

For those that "aren't in the know", here is an image.

Great story, floortrader. Mobilman44, I know you are combining multiple albums, so just a heads-up not to trust the original owners to have differentiated correctly between the coats of arm stamps issued by Russia and those issued by Finland. These (along with the the King Edward VII for George VI key plate British Empire definitives) are often mis-identified in general collections.

But the basic answer to the OP's question is YES, there are boxcars full of pristine mint Russian definitives from that period, which is why the vast majority catalog in the 25c range. The story is often the same for other European countries which were ravaged and looted in either World War. In May 1945, our own GI's "liberated" hundreds of millions of German "Hitler head" stamps as they swept eastward over a surrendered Germany, and they are still available for nickels and dimes too, often in full sheets.

It is hard to convince the heirs, some 70 years later, that Hitler stamps (notably #506-527) are essentially worthless.

Thank you for the info - and story. I have my own teenage stories from Humboldt Park (Chicago)back in the early '60s..........
The explanations make sense, and frankly make me feel pretty good. I was suspicious of fakes, but having the same stamps in similar condition from 3 donor albums was telling me they were real.

Yes, the coats of arms are demanding 5 and 10 power magnification for this ol guy. As I explained to my Wife, putting stamps properly in an album calls for a lot of detective work, patience, and source material. As a retired business analyst, I confess I love it!

Oh, you were correct about the "don't assume the former collector got the stamps in the proper places". Yup, assume nothing!

Thanks,
Mobilman44

My idea is in the past the stamps were mainly engraved which makes them better quality from the start; even those which were not were printed in good dyes on proper paper lasting long, unless the environment is really adverse.

I don't think good paper and printing have much to do with the overwhelming supply. It's more the factor of inflation, and the fact that these small definitives were obsolete the month they were printed.

Sort of like the German inflation issues, then?