The 2022 Ukrainian Stamps That Never Got Issued

I spoke with my stamp dealer in Ukraine and he told me he has never seen the Sich-2 stamp for sale anywhere. But, at the time of release, he was running for his life from the convoy heading for Kyiv.

I wonder if the people selling these stamps are postal employees that had access to them early.

Wow, there is an insane amount of these self-stamps on sale with all sorts of custom images about the war.

They are ALL the same MICHEL catalog number.

They all say RARE. But they're not. Don't get sucked in by this.

Nothing new here to be honest, Ukrainian dealers on Delcampe have been selling these personalized stamps with all sorts of topical interest since the introduction of personalized stamps in Ukraine over a decade ago. In the end they are perfectly legitimate postage stamps and can be used in Ukraine to pay postage, but of course the target audience is topical.collectors.

And Ukraine isn't the only country you see dealers selling "custom made" personalized topical stamps, and these days postal administrations themselves are using their personalized templates to creat limited edition issued that are sold to the general public at prices above (often WELL above) face value. Austria, Japan, France and Netherlands for example issue dozens of these types of issues each year.

Michel and Yvert actually list some of these issues for some countries like India, Greece, Indonesia, Netherlands and treat them as commemorative issues.

So the line between "official" commemorative issues and "personalized" issues has become increasingly blurred over the past decade.