We have a new addition to the PSCC Library, which we are calling USSR Porte-Timbres Catalog (1922-1929). This catalog can be viewed as a pdf by members only, but we have put a sample here also.
Design 31 in the catalog, 200,000 printed.
Porte-timbres, also known as “Stamp Collars”, have been around since the early 20th century as adhesives, and since the late 19th century printed directly onto envelopes or postal stationery.
When advertising poster stamps exploded onto the scene around 1910, postal administrations were concerned about them being used in place of postage stamps to frank mail. Many postal authorities banned non-postage stamps from the fronts of letters. Enter the Porte-Timbre (French for Stamp Carrier), which was an adhesive label with a space on which the smaller postage stamp could be pasted. The space around the postage stamp contained some type of message – perhaps political propaganda or commercial advertising. The entire piece would be affixed to the envelope, and cancelled as a regular stamp.
Many of the first Porte-Timbres in Russia were fairly modest, but in 1923 a private advertising agency in Russia partnered with the People’s Comissariat of Posts and Telegraphs. This partnership led to the production of “Advertising-Commodity Stamps”, which were porte-timbres that would be distributed to post offices, and the use would be controlled, so that the postage stamp would be adhered to the porte-timbre, affixed to the envelope and postmarked.
The highly decorative Russian porte-timbres only lasted a few years. This private/public partnership was only allowed after Lenin instituted the “New Economic Plan” in 1922–which blended capitalism with collectivism in order to hasten a recovery after all the destruction of 1914-1921. Lenin died in 1924, and Stalin lost interest in allowing much of any capitalism by 1928, and that was it for the NEP and advertising stamps. Existing stocks were exhausted by 1929. They are now highly sought after, and examples with postage stamps affixed and still tied to the original envelopes command large prices from collectors.
Page 23 of the Catalog
The only catalog of these Russian issues was produced in Moscow in 1997, with color images of all designs; this is the reference now available HERE on the website.
