Assist Needed If Possible, My Heads Spinning With The Dark Arts Of Stamp Collecting!

Hi all
Thanks for accepting me on board.
I run a small retro shop, which leads me to come across a lot of wonderful things.
I have come across a Stamp Collection, from a neighbour and have realised I have no clue where to start!
The world of stamp collecting has me somewhat intrigued.
First page that fell open was this (hopefully I'm doing this right) Russian stamp.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
Many thanks.

Try Batum.

It is from Batum. A port in the Caucasus that was occupied by the British at the conclusion of World War I. Most of them are forgeries. I believe yours is a forgery based on the overprint.

Batum is now known as Batumi and is a major port city on the Black Sea in what is now the Republic of Georgia, which gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991

If genuine, you'd find it in a Scott catalog under Russia-Batum, #18. Retails for a few cents.

A nice section on Batum Forgeries can be found here:

https://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.c...rgeries.html

Thanks a million for the pointers.
You people know your stuff.
Cheers

Welcome!

Dale

Hugh Jarse,

Enjoy having fun with stamps! That is the name of this game.

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby.

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ

Welcome to the forum! I'm learning from the long time collectors here myself. It seems that it was really common to make forgeries for stamps from the various post-WWI regions. I had no idea. I recently came across a stamp purportedly from Central Lithuania (Polish occupied region that issued stamps from 1920-22), another from Fiume (region in Italy that existed from 1920-24), and a third from early '20s Armenia, and as I learned here, all of them are likely forgeries. They're interesting curiosities on seeing them the first time. I'd never heard of some of these places.