1.
Ivan Shadr
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Ivan Shadr, pseudonym of Ivan Dmitriyevich Ivanov was a Russian/Soviet sculptor and medalist who took his pseudonym after his hometown of Shadrinsk. He furthered his education under Auguste Rodin and Emile-Antoine Bourdelle in Paris, shadrs early works, such as the project for the Monument to the Worlds Suffering, were designed according to the principles of Art Nouveau. In these years the characteristics of Shadr’s style were consolidated, an elevated, romantic organization of the figures, among his most famous and characteristic works are sculptures The Cobblestone Is the Weapon of the Proletariat and Girl with an Oar. In the 1920s, Shadr together with sculptor Piotr Tayozhny came up one of the first designs of the Order of Lenin. Shadr also worked for Goznak, including on designing new Soviet money that included the symbols of time, a worker, a peasant. Those sculptures remarkable for their vigorous and dynamic typical characters can be seen nowadays in the Russian Museum, Shadr died in wartime Moscow and in 1952 was awarded the Stalin Prize posthumously
2.
Stamp collecting
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Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is related to philately which is the study of stamps and it has been one of the worlds most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth century with the rapid growth of the postal service. Stamp collecting proved to be an almost perfect hobby for collectors because there was a never ending stream of new stamps as each sought to advertise its distinctiveness through its stamps. Because some stamps became rare, a international trade in stamps was created. While stamp collectors are of all ages, it has been particularly popular hobby among children, Stamp collecting is generally accepted as one of the areas that make up the wider subject of philately, which is the study of stamps. A philatelist may, but does not have to, collect stamps and it is not uncommon for the term philatelist to be used to mean a stamp collector. Many casual stamp collectors accumulate stamps for sheer enjoyment and relaxation without worrying about the tiny details, the creation of a large or comprehensive collection, however, generally requires some philatelic knowledge and will usually contain areas of philatelic studies. Stamp collectors are an important source of income for countries who create limited runs of elaborate stamps designed mainly to be bought by stamp collectors. The stamps produced by these countries may exceed their postal needs and it has been suggested that John Bourke, Receiver General of Stamp Dues in Ireland was the first collector. In 1774 he assembled a book of the existing embossed revenue stamps, ranging in value from 6 pounds to half a penny and his collection is preserved in Dublin. The first postage stamp, the Penny Black, was issued by Britain in 1840 and it was produced without perforations and consequently had to be cut from the sheet with scissors in order to be used. While unused examples of the Penny Black are quite scarce, used examples are quite common, people started to collect stamps almost immediately. One of the earliest and most notable was John Edward Gray, in 1862, Gray stated that he began to collect postage stamps shortly after the system was established and before it had become a rage. As the hobby and study of stamps began to grow, stamp albums and stamp related literature began to surface, children and teenagers were early collectors of stamps in the 1860s and 1870s. Many adults dismissed it as a pursuit but later many of those same collectors, as adults, began to systematically study the available postage stamps. Some stamps, such as the issues of the Cape of Good Hope, have become legendary. Stamp collecting is a popular hobby in the early 21st century than it was a hundred years ago. In 2013, the Wall Street Journal estimated the number of stamp collectors was around 60 million
3.
Postage stamp
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Postage stamp may also refer to a formatting artifact in the display of film or video, Windowbox. A postage stamp is a piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are printed on special paper, show a national designation and a denomination on the front. They are sometimes a source of net profit to the issuing agency, stamps are usually rectangular, but triangles or other shapes are occasionally used. The stamp is affixed to an envelope or other postal cover the customer wishes to send, the item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark, sometimes known as a cancellation mark, is usually applied in overlapping manner to stamp and cover. This procedure marks the stamp as used to prevent its reuse, in modern usage, postmarks generally indicate the date and point of origin of the mailing. The mailed item is delivered to the address the customer has applied to the envelope or parcel. Postage stamps have facilitated the delivery of mail since the 1840s, before then, ink and hand-stamps, usually made from wood or cork, were often used to frank the mail and confirm the payment of postage. The first adhesive postage stamp, commonly referred to as the Penny Black, was issued in the United Kingdom in 1840, there are varying accounts of the inventor or inventors of the stamp. The postage stamp resolved this issue in a simple and elegant manner, concurrently with the first stamps, the UK offered wrappers for mail. S. Postal service for priority or express mailing, the postage stamp afforded convenience for both the mailer and postal officials, more effectively recovered costs for the postal service, and ultimately resulted in a better, faster postal system. With the conveniences stamps offered, their use resulted in greatly increased mailings during the 19th and 20th centuries, as postage stamps with their engraved imagery began to appear on a widespread basis, historians and collectors began to take notice. The study of stamps and their use is referred to as philately. Stamp collecting can be both a hobby and a form of study and reference, as government-issued postage stamps. The postage for the item was prepaid by the use of a hand-stamp to frank the mailed item. Though this stamp was applied to a letter instead of a piece of paper it is considered by many historians as the worlds first postage stamp. Rowland Hill The Englishman Sir Rowland Hill began interest in postal reform in 1835, in 1836, a Member of Parliament, Robert Wallace, provided Hill with numerous books and documents, which Hill described as a half hundred weight of material. Hill commenced a study of these documents, leading him to the 1837 publication of a pamphlet entitled Post Office Reform its Importance
4.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
5.
Errors, freaks, and oddities
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In philately, errors, freaks, and oddities refers to all the kinds of things that can go wrong when producing postage stamps. Postal authorities generally take care to ensure that mistakes do not get out of the printing plant, to be valid. The authorities may attempt to lay hands on legitimately sold errors, as happened with the original Inverted Jenny sheet, a postage stamp error is any of several types of failure in the stamp printing process that results in stamps not having the intended appearance. Errors include use of the colors, wrong denominations, missing parts of the design, misplaced or inverted design elements. The term error is typically reserved for obvious failures in the process that replicate over many stamps. Printing plate flaws, such as cracks, wear, or even constant flaws, a particular error may only exist in a few dozen copies, and some well-known errors, such as the Treskilling Yellow, are unique. They are prized by collectors, with some fetching prices thousands of times higher than the stamp of their type. Errors are known at every stage of production, starting from design, to engraving, to replication of the die, to printing itself, the largest run of an error on a postage stamp is the 2011 United States Forever Statue of Liberty Stamp. The stamp shows the replica of the Statue of Liberty in Las Vegas rather than the original Statue of Liberty in New York, the stamp was released in December 2010 and the error was not noticed until March 2011. The error was identified by Sunipix, a photo agency in Texas. Ten and a billion of the error stamps were produced. Collectors understand that an error in one stamp catalog might not be considered an error at all in another catalog. Additionally, no definitions of the freaks and oddities are universally accepted within the EFO community. John Hotchner has authored many respected articles about this subject that provide clarity, the following is a list of the major types of errors. Design error, The picture may be of the subject, maps may show wrong borders. Omission error, Part of the design is missing. Missing color, Associated with printing processes which print the stamp in several different colors, missing overprint, A stamp valid for postage only when overprinted but with a missing overprint. Double impression, Stamp, or overprint, was printed twice, invert error, Part of the stamp is printed upside-down
6.
Stereotype (printing)
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The composition of individual cast metal types into lines with leading and furniture, tightly locked into a forme, was labor-intensive and costly. The printer would incur further expense through loss of the type for other uses while held in formes, publishers who did not accurately predict sales were forced into the expense of paying for the type to be reset for subsequent editions. English sources often describe the process as having been invented in 1725 by William Ged, however, Count Canstein had been publishing stereotyped Bibles in Germany since 1712 and an earlier form of stereotyping from flong was described in Germany in 1702. It is even possible that the process was used as early as the century by Johannes Gutenberg or his heirs for the Mainz Catholicon. Wide application of the technique, with improvements, is attributed to Charles Stanhope in the early 1800s, printing plates for the Bible were stereotyped in the US in 1814. Over time, stereotype became a metaphor for any set of ideas repeated identically or with minor changes. In fact, cliché and stereotype were both originally printers words, and in their printing senses became synonymous, the term stereotype derives from Greek στερεός solid, firm and τύπος blow, impression, engraved mark and in its modern sense was coined in 1798. The Era of Charles Mahon, Third Earl of Stanhope, Stereotyper, wet Mat Stereotyping in Germany in 1690. Historical Treatises, Abstracts, and Papers on Stereotyping
7.
Postage stamp separation
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For postage stamps, separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other. In the early years, from 1840 until 1850, all stamps were issued imperforate, once reliable separation equipment became available, nations switched rapidly. In 1847, Henry Archer constructed the first machine, the Archer Roulette and his plan, submitted to the Postmaster General on 1 October 1847, was referred to the departments of the General Post Office and the Inland Revenue. After experimentation both machines proved to be failures, from one machine a few stamps from Plates 70 and 71 have survived. This machine consisted of lancet-shaped blades working on a fly-press principle, Archer then abandoned this approach in favour of perforation, a process which used rows of small round pins to punch out the holes. In 1848 Archer patented his perforation machine which worked on the stroke principle, the arrangement of the pins enabled the top and sides of each stamp across the row to be perforated in a single operation, and this became known as comb perforation. Perforation trials were conducted in 1849 and 1850 under the auspices of the British Government, the Archer machine proved the viability of the process but never entered service. Archers patent for his machine was purchased for £4,000 in June 1853. New machines based on Archers principles were constructed by David Napier and Son Ltd, also in 1854 a rotary process was patented by William Bemrose and Henry Howe Bemrose. The Bemrose machine was designed as a rouletting machine, both the stroke and rotary processes have been refined since then, but are basically still the ones in use in the 21st century. In a few cases the size of the holes has been a factor, in the case of certain stamps produced by Australia for sale in rolls rather than sheets a pattern can be seen on the stamps short side of two small, ten large and two small holes. The standard for describing perforation is the number of holes in a 2-centimeter span, the finest gauge ever used is 18 on stamps of the Malay States in the early 1950s, and the coarsest is 2, seen on the 1891 stamps of Bhopal. Modern stamp perforations tend to range from 11 to 14, Stamps that are perforated on one pair of opposite sides and imperforate on the other have most often been produced in coils instead of sheets, but they can sometimes come from booklet panes. Booklet panes can be associated with any combination of one, two or three imperforate sides, sheet edges can produce any one imperforate side or two adjacent imperforate sides when the stamp comes from the corner of the sheet. Variations include syncopated perforations which are uneven, either skipping a hole or by making some holes larger, in the 1990s, Great Britain began adding large elliptical holes to the perforations on each side, as an anti-counterfeiting measure. Rouletting uses small cuts in the paper instead of holes and it was used by a number of countries, but is rarely if ever seen on modern stamps. Varieties, often described by philatelists in French terms, include straight cuts, arc, sawtooth, a few types of stamps have combined rouletting and perforation, for instance South Africa in 1942. The first self-adhesive stamp was issued by Sierra Leone in 1964 and these are inevitably diecut, meaning that the stamps themselves are cut entirely apart, held together only by the backing paper
8.
Stamp sheet
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A sheet of stamps or press sheet is a unit of stamps as printed, usually on large sheets of paper based on the size of the printing plate, that are separated into panes that are sold at post offices. Where more than one pane is on a printed sheet they are arranged in a table-like arrangement, the spaces between the single stamps are all of the same size and provide space for a cut or perforation. Today, a sheet of stamps is the most common way of arranging stamps on the impressed paper, the number of stamps on a sheet and the format of the sheet depend on the size and format of the individual stamps. On November 13,1994, the Deutsche Post changed the format of its emissions to sheets of ten stamps each, the edges of these sheets are specially designed, making them a novel field of collecting. In fact, the printing sheet refers only to a part of the actual printing sheet. This is because stamps are printed in four connected sheets. At the post office counter, only the four separated printing sheets are sold, therefore, the sheet of stamps is also called a counter sheet or pane, though improperly called a sheet of stamps. The empty fields connecting the single sheets are called gutters. Normally they are separated in the middle after printing in order to obtain four counter sheets, the half empty fields or gutters then form the edge of the sheet. However, from many issues, unseparated gutters with connected stamps of the neighbouring sheets come on the market and these gutters may be either empty or printed, if printed edges were intended. The philatelist makes a distinction between horizontal and vertical gutters, a specific characteristic of the gutters is the heart of the printing sheet, where all four panes are connected. Gutters and hearts are very popular with collectors and reach high catalog prices, single counter sheets do not always have to be separated by empty fields. Issues which were not intended to have edges were naturally manufactured without empty fields, to be able to distinguish between the single sheets better, the stamps were printed rotated 180° to each other along the separation line. Philatelists describe the two stamps which are upside down in relationship to other as tête-bêche. Some issues have tête-bêches as well as gutters, like gutters, tête-bêches are very popular with collectors due to their rarity. The stamps are arranged on the sheet in a table with rows, due to this arrangement, the location of each stamp can be precisely determined. The philatelist counts the single stamps horizontally from left to right, accordingly, the third stamp in the sixth row of a sheet of 10 x 10 would be the 53rd stamp of the sheet for the collector, but the 26th stamp for the post. An A in the left corner indicated the first row, a B the second one
9.
Ruble
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The ruble or rouble is or was a currency unit of a number of countries in Eastern Europe closely associated with the economy of Russia. Originally, the ruble was the unit of Imperial Russia and then the Soviet Union. The Russian ruble is used in the partially recognised states of Abkhazia. In the past, several other countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union had currency units that were also named rubles, one ruble is divided into 100 kopeks. According to one version, the ruble is derived from the Russian verb рубить, to cut, to chop, to hack. Rubles were parts of the grivna or pieces of silver with notches indicating their weight, each grivna was divided into four parts, the name ruble came from the word cut because the silver rod weighing 1 grivna was split into four parts, which were called rubles. Another version of the origin is that it comes from the Russian noun рубец. Therefore, the word means a cast with a seam. A popular theory deriving word ruble from rupee is probably not correct, the ruble was the Russian equivalent of the mark, a measurement of weight for silver and gold used in medieval Western Europe. The weight of one ruble was equal to the weight of one grivna, in Russian, a folk name for ruble, tselkovyj, is known, which is a shortening of the целковый рубль, i. e. a wholesome, uncut ruble. This name persists in the Mordvin word for ruble, целковой, the word kopek, kopeck, copeck, or kopeyka is a diminutive form of the Russian kopyo — a spear. The first kopek coins, minted at Novgorod and Pskov from about 1534 onwards, from the 1540s onwards the horseman bears a crown, and doubtless the intention was to represent Ivan the Terrible, who was Grand Prince of all Russia until 1547, and Tsar thereafter. Subsequent mintings of the coin, starting in the 18th century, since the monetary reform of 1534, one Russian accounting ruble became equivalent to 100 silver Novgorod denga coins or smaller 200 Muscovite denga coins or even smaller 400 polushka coins. Exactly the former coin with a rider on it became colloquially known as kopek and was the higher coin until the beginning of the 18th century. Ruble coins as such did not exist till Peter the Great, apart from one ruble and one kopek coins other smaller and greater coins existed as well. Both the spellings ruble and rouble are used in English, the form rouble is preferred by the Oxford English Dictionary, but the earliest use recorded in English is the now completely obsolete robble. The form rouble probably derives from the transliteration into French used among the Tsarist aristocracy, the Russian plurals that may be seen on the actual currency are modified according to Russian grammar. Numbers 1,21,31 etc. are followed by nominative singular рубль, numbers 2–4, 22–24, 32–34 etc. will be followed by genitive singular рубля, копейки
10.
Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War
11.
Definitive stamp
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Commonly, a definitive issue or series includes stamps in a range of denominations sufficient to cover current postal rates. An issue generally means a set that is put on all at the same time, while a series is spread out over several years. Additional stamps in a series may be produced as needed by changes in postal rates but some values may be available, regardless of prevailing rates, for instance 1c or 1p. The range of values varies by era and country, but the focus is on coverage, the highest value of the series is generally quite large, typically from 50-100 times the normal letter rate, typical values include one pound, five dollars, etc. Not often seen by the person, they are most common for parcels. The in-between values are chosen to make change efficiently, for instance 1,2,5,10,20,50 in a decimal currency. It is common to all values between 1 and 10, multiples of 5 from 10 to 50, and multiples of 10 from 50 to 100. Additional oddball values may reflect specific common rates, and if the series lasts for a period of time, definitives are the workhorse stamps of a country, and as such, they tend to be small, with designs reflecting local culture and history. Collectors organizations have recommended that administrations only bring out new definitive issues no more often than every five years, an exception would be the death of a monarch, or other prominent leader, necessitating a new definitive series for the new ruler. Sometimes merely the portrait is changed, and the design remains the same throughout several issues. Countries that ignore frequency of issue guidelines and issue volumes of stamps that have little to no practical usage produce what many refer to as wallpaper. Since definitive series are issued over a period of time and are reprinted to meet postal demand, many philatelists study these differences as part of their hobby and try to collect all the varieties of each stamp. Some varieties are rare and can be more valuable than others of the same stamp that may look the same to the casual observer. One notable example of this variation is the Machin stamps of the UK, where philatelists have identified over 1000 varieties of the same basic design
12.
Denomination (postage stamp)
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In philately, the denomination is the inscribed value of a stamp. For instance, if you visit the post office to buy a stamp to pay $1s worth of postage you will receive a stamp that has the value $1 printed on it in words or numbers. The denomination is not the same as the value of a stamp on the market, which is usually different. For instance, there might be a 47c stamp to pay a particular postal rate, where no denomination is shown, it may be because the stamp is deliberately non-denominated to pay the cost of a particular service, or because the stamp is not a postage stamp. It might be a stamp of some kind such as a poster stamp or charity label. Subsequent decades saw the issue of B, C, D, E, F, G and H stamps that similarly covered the periodic later rate increases. In 2007 the United States Postal Service issued its first undenominated Forever stamp, by 2011, the vast majority of new U. S. postal issues were forever stamps, although some new stamps still carried specific denominations. In 2015 the forever stamp was expanded into all other stamps and stamps either have their intended purpose or the word FOREVER printed on them instead of a denomination, sometimes a stamp may have its denomination changed by the post office due to local circumstances. For instance, stocks of one value may be overprinted to show a different value due to stock shortages, in cases of hyper-inflation stamps have had their denomination changed by overprinting as existing denominations became worthless. In other cases, changes to the local currency have led to changes in denomination, bisects and splits Face value Non-denominated postage Semi-postal
13.
Face value
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The face value is the value of a coin, stamp or paper money, as printed on the coin, stamp or bill itself by the issuing authority. The face value of coins, stamps, or bill is usually its legal value, however, their market value need not bear any relationship to the face value. For example, some coins or stamps may be traded at prices considerably above their face value. The face value of bonds usually represents the principal or redemption value, interest payments are expressed as a percentage of face value. Before maturity, the value of a bond may be greater or less than face value, depending on the interest rate payable. As bonds approach maturity, actual value approaches face value, in the case of stock certificates, face value is the par value of the stock. In the case of stock, par value is largely symbolic. In the case of preferred stock, dividends may be expressed as a percentage of par value, the face value of a life insurance policy is the death benefit. In the case of so-called double indemnity life insurance policies, the beneficiary receives double the value in case of accidental death. The face value of property, casualty or health insurance policies is the amount payable. Face value can be used to refer to the apparent value of something other than a financial instrument, in this context, face value refers to the apparent merits of the idea, before the concept or plan has been tested. Face value also refers to the price printed on a ticket to an event, concert. In many jurisdictions, re-selling tickets for more than face value constitutes ticket scalping and is illegal, taking someone at face value is assuming another persons suggestion, offer, or proposal is sincere, rather than a bargaining ploy. Denomination Nominal value Melt value Par value Place value
14.
A.S. Popov Central Museum of Communications
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Popov Central Museum of Communications was founded in 1872 and is one of the oldest museums of science and technology in the world. It is located in the centre of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The museum was opened on 11 September 1872 as the Telegraph Museum, thus the creation of the museum collections was set up. By the late 1970s, the museum housed more than 4 million stamps, stamped envelopes, nowadays, the museum is a leading institution in its field in the Russian Federation. As such, it provides consulting supervision for other telecommunications museums, the museum is situated at the address,7 Pochtamtskaya Street, Saint Petersburg,190000, Russia. Popov Central Museum of Communications at Wikimedia Commons
15.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
16.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
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Philately
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Philately is the study of stamps and postal history and other related items. It also refers to the collection, appreciation and research activities on stamps, Philately involves more than just stamp collecting, which does not necessarily involve the study of stamps. It is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps, for instance, the stamps being studied may be very rare, or reside only in museums. The word philately is the English version of the French word philatélie, Herpin stated that stamps had been collected and studied for the previous six or seven years and a better name was required for the new hobby than timbromanie, which was disliked. He took the Greek root word φιλ- phil-, meaning an attraction or affinity for something, and ἀτέλεια ateleia, meaning exempt from duties and taxes to form philatelie. The introduction of postage meant that the receipt of letters was now free of charge. The alternative terms timbromania, timbrophily and timbrology gradually fell out of use as philately gained acceptance during the 1860s. Comparison with the records of postal authorities may or may not show that the variations were intentional, which leads to further inquiry as to how the changes could have happened, and why. To make things interesting, thousands of forgeries have been produced over the years, some of them very good. Thematic philately, also known as philately, is the study of what is depicted on the stamps. There are hundreds of subjects, such as birds on stamps. A classic example is the Pony Express, which was the fastest way to send letters across the United States during the few months that it operated, covers that can be proven to have been sent by the Pony Express are highly prized by collectors. Aerophilately is the branch of history that specializes in the study of airmail. Philatelists have observed the development of transport by air from its beginning. Postal stationery includes stamped envelopes, postal cards, letter sheets, aérogrammes and wrappers, cinderella philately is the study of objects that look like stamps, but are not postal stamps. Examples include Easter Seals, Christmas Seals, propaganda labels, Philatelic literature documents the results of philatelic study and includes thousands of books and periodicals. Maximaphily is the study of Maximum Cards, Maximum Cards can be defined as a picture post card with postage stamp on the same theme and a cancellation, with a maximum concordance between all three. Philately uses a number of tools, including stamp tongs to safely handle the stamps, a magnifying glass
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New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
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Definitive stamps of Russia
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Definitive stamps of Russia are the regular postage stamp issues produced in the Russian Empire and RSFSR between 1857 and 1923, and in the Russian Federation since 1992. The Russian Empire started issuing definitive series of stamps since 10 December 1857 when the first Russian stamp went on sale. There were twenty definitive issues produced until 1917 as outlined in a table below, the first definitive series of the RSFSR was issued in 1921. It included five designs of new Soviet symbols such as labour, industrial labour, science and arts, hammer and sickle. The stamps had a minimum wording, Russian, Почта and the acronym Russian, РСФСР, examples of stamps of the RSFSR 1st definitive issue,1921 The first regular issue involved eleven different stamps of denominations ranging between 1 and 1,000 rubles. Among these, five stamps showed the design, printed in different colours and with face values of 1,2,100,200. The industrial-labour symbol was given in three denominations,5,500, and 1,000 rubles, the stamp for science-and-arts appeared only once. Reflecting new political goals, RSFSR postage stamps provided visual messages of the values, portraying the three social groups, the RSFSRs final definitive issues in 1922 and 1923 depicted the worker, the soldier, and the peasant that constituted the Soviet state. These were stylistic representations in the form of classical busts resembling portraits of monarchs, the sculptor Ivan Shadr was author of these images. Designing the busts, he created the worker first, then the Red Army soldier and these two stamps appeared in December 1922. The stamp showing the bust of the peasant came out five months later, among the eleven denominations of the fourth definitive issue, the worker appeared on stamps three times, the soldier six times, and the peasant showed up on two stamps. The Soviet Russia definitive issues are listed in the table, Between 1923 and 1992. There were 13 definitive issues of the Soviet Union, in 1992–2010, the Russian Federation produced six issues of definitive stamps. The first post-Soviet issue appeared in February 1992 and it included two stamps with face values of 20 and 30 kopecks that depicted Saint George and the Millennium of Russia monument. In the early and mid 1990s, this series of stamps continuously expanded due to hyperinflation. Many stamps were reissued using the design but with a modified denomination. For example, the value of the stamp with the Golden Gate in Vladimir increased from 10 kopecks to 150 rubles. The maximum stamp denomination reached 5,000 rubles, first stamps of the Russian Federation 1st definitive issue,1992 The second and third issues of definitive stamps came out in 1997–1999
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Definitive stamps of the Soviet Union
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Definitive stamps of the Soviet Union were the regular postage stamp issues produced in the USSR between 1923 and 1992. The first issue of the Soviet Union definitive stamps appeared in October 1923 and it was known as the Gold Standard issue. Its stamps bore the busts of the worker, Red Army soldier, in the period between 1923 and 1926, the worker and soldier designs were placed on thirteen stamps each and that of the peasant on ten stamps. Stamps of the 1st definitive, Gold Standard issue,1923 In 1929, depiction of the female worker and female collective-farm worker next to their male counterparts in this series was the first appearance of women on Soviet stamps. The worker was shown in the issue of March 1939 as a steel foundryman. The last definitive series that begun in the Stalin period was the eighth issue and it was remarkable by the fact that the scientist was for the first time portrayed on Soviet definitive stamps. In 1958, the design appeared meaning that representatives of other Soviet labouring groups were also depicted on stamps. In 1961, a stamp with the combine worker appeared. This table represents an outline of the overall USSR definitive issues produced in the Soviet and post-Soviet times, media related to Definitive stamps of the Soviet Union at Wikimedia Commons
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First USSR stamps
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The first USSR stamps or First All-Russia Agricultural Exhibition issue appeared in August 1923 as a series of Soviet Union postage stamps. Its designer was the Russian artist Georgy Pashkov, the First All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Exhibition was held in Moscow in 1923. It was opened on 19 August and this very day, a special commemorative series of postage stamps dedicated to the exhibition opening was released. These were the first stamps of the Soviet Union, the stamp design was created by the artist G. Pashkov. The stamps have the inscription in Russian, CCCP or Почта CCCP, the value, and they were produced by lithographic printing in two versions, imperforate and perforated. The socialist construction of philately in the early Soviet era, comparative Studies in Society and History. Archived from the original and another source on 2015-05-15, archived from the original on 2015-05-30. Media related to First USSR stamps at Wikimedia Commons
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Gold Standard issue
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The Gold Standard issue or Small Head issue was the first definitive series of postage stamps issued by the Soviet Union between 1923 and 1927. The stamps were designed by Ivan Shadr, the RSFSR Government re-issued definitive stamps with regular frequency. New stamps were required due to the monetary reform in the Soviet Union. The first definitive series of stamps, which the Russians themselves name standard series, was issued by the newly formed USSR in October 1923. Because its face values corresponded to the gold standard, the series usually goes under the name of Gold Standard. These stamps are known as Small Head issues. They were thoroughly described by H. L. Aronson, the design of this series was not new. It was modified and simplified from former stamp issues of the RSFSR, representatives of the three main strata of the population, the Worker, the Peasant, and the Red Army Soldier, were depicted on the stamps. The Russian sculptor and artist-designer Ivan Shadr was the stamp design author and he worked on this project very conscientiously. Live models from his hometown of Shadrinsk were chosen for producing at first sculptures of three types. Then, the sculptures were photographed from all sides, the final stamp design was selected on the best view of the sculptures. The stamps have the inscription Russian, CCCP, the value, in the early 1920s, there were two basic printing processes, lithography and typography, used in Russia. The Small Heads were produced by both methods, there are different designs and distinguishing marks, both in lithographic and typographic printing. To detect them is not always easy, and four values, for the first months, those stamps were sold at the post offices at the varied prices. This was because the value was at the beginning established through the daily official stock market quotations. In March 1924, the new based on gold standard was finally introduced. One of the Gold Standard stamps, Limonka, is considered quite rare and this is the 15 kopeck yellow perforated stamp of the Peasant design issued in 1925. The name Limonka is referred to its yellow colour
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Postage stamps and postal history of Russia
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This a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the modern Russian Federation. Records mention a system of messengers in the 10th century, early letters were carried in the form of a roll, with a wax or lead seal, the earliest known of these seals dates from 1079, and mentions a governor Ratibor of Tmutarakan. The earliest surviving cover was sent in 1391 from La Tana to Venice, by the 16th century, the postal system included 1,600 locations, and mail took 3 days to travel from Moscow to Novgorod. In 1634, a treaty between Russia and Poland established a route to Warsaw, becoming Russias first regular international service. Peter the Great enacted reforms making the system more uniform in its operations. “Regular post service” was established along the Moscow and Riga routes, in February 1714, the postal service started biweekly runs from St. Petersburg to Riga, in June it started runs from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The field post office was founded in 1716, and the so-called ordinary post service in 1720, for fast conveyance of state ordinances, regular delivery of private parcels was organized in the 1730-40s. In 1746, parcels and private correspondence were first delivered by courier, the earliest known Russian postmark dates from July 1765, it is a single line reading ST. PETERSBOVRG, but the first official recommendation to use postmarks did not come until 1781. In 1833, the St. Petersburg City Post was created, and the city was divided into 17 districts with 42 correspondence offices, in 1834, reception offices appeared in the suburbs. Periodical press delivery in Russia was organized in St. Petersburg in 1838, the Department of Coaches and T-carts was opened in 1840 at the Moika Embankment, light cabriolets carried surplus-post, coaches delivered light post, and T-carts dealt with “heavy post. In 1864, the City Post started sending printed matter and catalogues, Postal stationery made its first appearance in 1845, in the form of envelopes that paid the 5-kopeck fee for local mail in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The idea worked well, and was extended throughout Russia on December 1,1848, local postal systems used stamps referred to as Zemstvo stamps, from the term for local government begun under Alexander II in 1864. Russian Post is a member of the Universal Postal Union created in 1874. In 1902 Chief Postal Service was made part of the Internal Affairs Ministry and in 1917 under the Provisional Government it became part of Ministry of Posts, during the Great Patriotic War, Soviet postal service was a part of the Peoples Commissariat for Communications of the USSR. It delivered up to 70 million parcels per month to the Soviet Army front from the rear under extremely difficult, in the postwar years, mail service has undergone quantitative and qualitative changes. In 1946, the Peoples Commissariat for Communications of the USSR was transformed into the Ministry of Communications of the USSR, Postal service has been carried out by the Post Office, which was part of the Ministry of Communications, along with other offices of telecommunications industries. By 1950, the post industry, destroyed by the war, was restored, in subsequent years, significantly expanded network of communication enterprises, especially in rural areas. In the cities and a network of offices, post offices
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Soviet and post-Soviet postage rates
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Soviet and post-Soviet postage rates in Russia changed multiple times in the period 1917 to present. They have been introduced by the Soviet and Russian Federation governmental organs and agencies, the issue of Russian postage stamps is directly related to postage rates in force at given times during the history of the Russian postal service. Stamp denominations were applied to meet a public need to pay postage costs according to the current rates, issuing values for the revenue generation was not a purpose of the state policy in this area. Change of postage rates is an important aspect in studying the Russian postal history, Russian postage rates, especially those of the Soviet times, have not been thoroughly researched in philatelic literature. This part of the Russian postal history is studied, with comments appearing within some other context. Alteration of the postage rates led to the increases in the value of the stamps as reflected in the numbers printed and overcharged. Thus, the rates were often the reason to revalue current stamps, Soviet postal rates for the despatch and delivery of internal mail were changed numerous times. For example, there were about 30 rate changes during the period 1918 to 1966, the early Soviet post office struggled to keep them up. Usually, new rates were introduced by special decrees of the Government, in a few cases, this was done by the circularised orders of the postal administration known as post office circulars. The rates for international postage were established by the same Peoples Commissariat for Posts and Telegraphs, during the USSR period from 1923 up to 1967, postal rates were changed ten times. Following the RSFSR practice, there was a supplementary rate in case of registered mail that was added to the normal postage charge. This procedure was in effect until 1948 when a rate was established for registered mail. Also, higher rates for special classes of mail existed from 1923 to 1938 that were used for, “especially important” letters and packets, “express” postal sendings, USSR stamps for “express” postal sendings,1932 An additional fee was charged for sending mail by air. Internal airmail rates were fixed in 1932 and those for international airmail in 1939, from 1936, the airmail rates were applied to regular operations all year round. For underpaid internal mail, there was a charge at the registration rate, charge for underpaid international mail was double the deficient postage. Similar policy and practice of introducing postage rates have been continuing in the Russian Federation since 1992 and this table represents an outline of the overall fluctuations of internal postal rates in the Soviet and post-Soviet times. A At the government’s expense from 1 January 1919 until August 1921
Media related to 70r Red Army Soldier error at Wikimedia Commons