Howdy, Question About A Stamp I Found, Can't Seem To Find Anywhere. Value?

As a native speaker, the answer is simple: grammar. Czech, like many languages, has to deal with agreements of subject and object, tense, and in this specific case, gender.



The swastika is your clue that it was used during the German occupation of Ukraine (which has a reasonably convoluted political history vis-a-vis the Soviet Union). If it doesn't have the swastika, it wasn't used during that period, generally.

I think it depends on whether it is Czech (o) or Slovakian (a). Perhaps someone has more complete explanation.

What 'O' and 'A'?

Do you mean Ceskoslovensko vs Posta Ceskoslovenska?

The first is the male singular adjective and name of the country, the second female singular adjective that goes with the female posta.

No, it's not it at all.
"Posta" (can't add the right diacritic here) is a feminine noun, so "Ceskoslovenska" (here an adjective) has to agree with it.
Ceskoslovensko is a noun: Czechoslovakia. Posta Ceskoslovenska is noun-adjective: Czechoslovak Post. It the same principle as America vs. American Post.

classic_paper,

Thanks for the correction. Learn something everyday.

Question - Has posta always been feminine? Ceskoslovenska seems to change to Ceskoslovensko after the first few stamp issuances in 1920 or so?

What you're noting is the change around 1926/27 from Czechoslovak Post to Czechoslovakia (see above).

Right that's what I thought, Polish is my first language, the males in my family end the last name in ski but the females with the same last name end it in ska.

classic_paper,

At the risk of beating a dead horse as I am missing something here. Stamps from 1918 through 1926 read Posta Ceskoslovenska or Posta Cesko-slovenska dependant upon which issue it is. Then in 1926 it changes to Posta Ceskoslovensko due to change in the postal service name from from Czechoslovak Post to Czechoslovakia. Is that correct?

Almost. The Austrian overprints and issues to about 1926 read (as you correctly state) Posta Ceskoslovenska or Posta Cesko-slovenska. Then there was for whatever reason a design change from that to just Ceskoslovensko.
So, things went from "Czechoslovak Post" to "Czechoslovakia."



Czech does that too, with an "-ova" appended to the surnames of females. Russian often does it with "-eva."

classic- paper,

Thanks for the explanation, appreciated.

Taking into consideration the rule does not apply to 'foreign' names, the general rule is that the 'a' is added.'

Alexander Pushkin's wife Natalia Goncharova will have been Natalia Pushkina.
Her father must have had the family name Goncharov, making her maiden name Goncharova.
Michael Gorbachyov's - I intentionally add the y as this is the Cyrillic 'ë' pronounced as 'yo'; the reason news readers kept calling him either Gorbatchov or Gorbatchev - became Raisa Gorbachyova.
Indieed, 'yev' becomes 'yeva.' Whereas 'ov' is the normal ending, certain letters cannot be followed by an 'o' and 'ov' becomes 'ev.' (Gorbachov is impossible, as 'ch' is one of those letters that cannot be followed by an 'o.')

It becomes even more complicated as the names are declensed. A letter to Pushkin's wife will have Pushkine on the envelope, or Goncharovoy before she married.