Latvia: Second Republic (1990 Onwards)

On November 18th 1990, Latvia issued their first stamped envelop, although the text on the top of tree, "The oak of rebirth" says "May, 4th".
With this, started the postal history of the Second Latvian Republic. That was to be fully independent from August 20th 1991.

Circulated to Laubere (Latvia) on the Day of issue







On December 24th, 1990, it was isued the second cover, showing Latvia's flag.

On May 4th 1991, four more covers were issued (I only have 3 of them) on the flap of the 50 kop covers it says "just for mailing to Denmark" while on the other's three it states the republics of the USSR where these covers could be sent,






The illustration on the first cover shows a relief on the Liberty monument in Riga; the second, the monument itself (called "Milda") and the third the arms of the Latvian Republic.

Priecigus Ziemassvetkus = Merry Christmas

Here is the missing one (another part of the monument)

The first Olympic stamps of Latvia (for both the 1st and 2nd Republic - during the 1st Republic, only a numbr of vignettes (cinderellas) were issued before the cancelled Summer Olympics in 1940 in Helsinki, Finland).

The set of 3 stamps commemorates the re-recognition of the Latvian Olympic Committee by the IOD.

The LOC was first created on 23 April 1922, and recognized by the IOC in 1923. Latvia participated in 4 interwar Summer Olympics between 1924 and 1936, and in 3 Winter Olynpics (1924, 1928 and 1936), winning 2 Olympic medals (1 silver and 1 bronze in 1936 in Berlin).

The national Olympic Committee in Latvia was reinstated on 17 September 1988 and recognised by the IOC on its session in Berlin, on 18 September 1991 - this date is present on one of the stamps.

Here is an event cover commemorating U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to Riga on July 6, 1994. President Clinton met with the presidents of Baltic States, whose flags are shown on the cachet.

And ten years later...a commemorative stamp!

And one year later another U.S. president visits Latvia:George W.Bush

Here are two domestic, registered covers showing the inflation problems facing the Baltic States in their first few years of independence. Both covers are uprated postal stationery with a bicolor Freedom Monument indica.

The first cover is a 50 kopek envelope uprated to 150 Russian kopeks by 4 Freedom Monument stamps. Correspondence was sent from Spartaks on December 29, 1991 and arrived in Riga on December 31. The stamps used were issued on December 28, 1991. The registration label is provisional, with Spartaks written in ballpoint pen over Riga.

The second cover is a 300 kopeks envelope uprated to 600 kopeks by three Monuments stamps. Correspondence was sent from Riga on February 11, 1993 and arrived in Jelgava on February 12. In May 1992 the Latvian ruble became the provisional currency and this period lasted until March 5, 1993 when Latvian lats became the official currency.

Consumer price inflation in Latvia's three most trying years (1991-3) were 172, 951, and 109 percent (source: EBRD 1996, from Karlsten Staehr, Exchange Rate Policies in the Baltic States: Extreme Inflation to Euro Membership). After 1995 the situation normalized.

This postal stationery cover is a surcharged 5 kopek Soviet envelope with value increased to 50 kopeks. Added to it are 3 regular Latvia stamps of 50 kopeks, plus 2 Soviet stamps overprinted/surcharged stamps at 200 kopeks value. This paid the domestic rate of 300 kopeks.

Cover is postmarked Sigulda, 24 November 92. Riga receiving cancel on back is 26 November 92.

The stationery cover in the first image in the first post of this thread was issued to commemorate: "Latvijas Neatkaribas Atjaunosana" (without the diacritics), which translates to "Restoration of Latvian Independence".
The Latvians consider that their independence was restored, as in regained - the continuation of their independence of 1918. They consider the period between 1945 to 1990 to have been an occupation by a foreign power.
"Second Republic" sounds just a bit French to me.

Well, enough for politics and onwards with philately.

There is at least one thing a newbie collector should know about the years 1991 to 1993 in Latvia - there was a lot of commotion in the society. First and foremost financially by the introduction of inflation, which had been an unknown phenomenon for the previous 45 years.
Everybody with common sense would buy no matter what in hope of having something left to sell when the inflation was under control. Furthermore, the Soviet Union had a tradition of demonetization and people also feared this to happen. Some stamp collectors spent their savings on stamps and began a small production of philatelic covers.

And this is the real reason why I post this, to show a philatelic cover produced by one of these stamp collectors. I purchased it in Latvia in 1993 from the producer himself and could have filled several suitcases if I wanted to. A handfull as reference objects was enough for me.

Latvian rubles (LVR) and Latvian lats (LVL) both circulated from March 5, 1993 to June 30, 1994 (2 LVR equals 0,01 LVL), which is why it is possible to find Latvian covers from this period with mixed franking - postage stamps with face values in different currencies affixed to a cover.

Registered domestic cover sent July 7, 1993 from Dagda to Kraslava, franked with 2x 5 santimes and 2x 3 rubles (value 3 santimes), which makes 13 santimes for a registered letter of the 1st weight class (<=20g).

A sparsely catalogued part of modern Latvian philately are provisional stationery. Soviet postal stationery uprated with a rubber stamp with the text: "Pasts Latvija" (Post Latvia; read from the left) and a face value in kopecks.

The latest Michel stationery catalogue on this topic - the Michel Ganzsachen Europa ab 1960, Westliches Europa 2011 has some of these listed (U 7 to U 17 with U 18 to U 20 reserved; page 382), but there are many more not listed, even those that would be considered as regular issues with only one rubber stamp.

To make a long story short ... at the time in question Latvia had 27 administrative regions. Each of these regions had a postal management and those regional postal managements were made responsible for the sale and distribution of provisional stationery. The story does not tell who actually applied the original rubber stamps, but it does not require much imagination for a dubious character of a postal employee to come to the conclusion, that such a rubber stamp is easy to copy. And that is how we end up with the following postally used covers.

The regional postal administration of Preili, in the south-eastern part of Latvia, did something unique. They had a rubber stamp made with the face value "50", which none of the other regional postal administrations are known to have used.

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From December 1, 1991 to February 29, 1992 the rate for a domestic letter of the 1st weight class (<=20g) was 50 kopeck.
From March 1, 1992 to August 9, 1992 the rate for a domestic letter of the 1st weight class (<=20g) was 1 rubel (100 kopeck).

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Soviet postal stationery with 5 kopeck imprinted postage stamp, uprated with a 45 kopeck provisonal rubber stamp to get the 50 kopeck rate. Then additionally uprated with the Preili 50 kopeck provisional rubber stamp to get the 1 ruble (100 kopeck) rate. Postmarked in Riebini (hard to read) on July 20, 1992. The cover was sent to a postorder book store in Riga, and the paper remnants in the upper left corner are from the order slip that was glued to the cover as reference.


Same story with this cover, even though the Preili 50 kopeck provisional rubber stamp was first applied to a sheet of paper, then cut out as a regular postage stamp and finally affixed to uprate the cover. How about that? Postmarked by machine cancel in Preili on May 7, 1992. The cover was sent to the Ministry of Social Welfare in Riga.


Backside of cover with postmark of arrival.