Dancing in The Quagmire

Stellar! Thanks Ryan. There is an area in the Russian base stamps I may be able to glean info from those journals (although wish I could read Russian).

Lets Dance!

Last weekend I went to the Portland Philatelic Expo. As always the societies involved put on a great show! As with all bourses and shows I decided before hand my priorities and listed them in order. Then I set my Budget. Although  I never expect to hold to this list, but I make it none the less. Little did I know this was gonna be one of those shows.

First on my list was the completion of the Imperial Russian stamps that were used by Ukraine of the classic era. This included color variations. I took a lap around the bourse, eyeing the different dealers and choosing the best chances for success. First table was a success. I expected to find these they are not uncommon, but not at the first table I visited. In the back of my head some music began to play softly. After touring the bourse for a while, making some purchases, and such I then headed to a table I knew, from last year, he would have some interesting stuff.

 I sat down, greeted the dealer and he recognized me from last year, and said he had something for me to  look at. He handed me a white binder emblazoned with the national flag of Ukraine. I opened it, and was astonished to find the person who had created this binder was no average collector. He had danced in this quagmire for some time. Price wise this collection was way out of my league. What the dealer brought to my attention though was the last seven pages or so. They contained Western Ukraine and Caratho Ukraine, The music in my head began to get loud. The dealer asked me if I knew much about this area. My answer was that I did not know those areas as well as I should but would help him if I could. I told him I had some catalogs of some interest to him and offered the address were he might find them. The dealer then showed me what he had in the way of classic Ukraine trident overprints.

First up was the small books, the real nice stuff, cream of the crop stuff, all of which would have blown my budget to smithereens. Most, if not all were signed by experts. Then came the approval boxes but none had what I was looking for. We discussed meeting up at Seapex in the fall where he would bring what he had to complete my reference collection. We shook hands and parted (music softened).

The last table I visited was a general world wide dealer. he did not have a great choice in my area, but pointed me in the direction of a box that held country collections. Bingo there was one collection for sale here. I carefully opened it up. Page after page of material(the music load and clear in my head). At first glance I could tell unlike the other collection, I saw that day, this was more of a shotgun blast of trident overprints. My rule of thumb in this kind of collection is that about ten percent of the material offered would be legitimate. That being I said, we made arrangements to meet on the tenth of next month to finalized the purchase.

Whether you collect classic or not it is important to note that information is king. so here is some general information about the classic trident overprints of Ukraine
There were six different  postal districts used in Ukraine during the time 1917-1920 (civil war period).Each had their own distinctive types of tridents and subtypes. These were used on the imperial coat of arms stamps of Russia 1889-1918. 
 1 Katerynoslav (Ykaterynoslav) Types I and II
 2 Kiev (Kyiv) Types I thru III
 3 Kharkiv Types I Thru III
 4 Odessa Types I Thru VIb
 5 Poltava Types I Thru II
 6 Podillia I thru XVId
 These make up the bulk of classic Ukraine collections. Along with revenue and field post issues. Also some the most heavily forged stamps there are.
 The catalogs used in this area:
 1 Independent Ukraine 1019-1920 by Peter Bylen (Beginner to Intermediate collector)
 2 Roberts/Schiecter catalog (intermediate collector)
 3 Bulat Catalog (expert collector)
 Signed stamps by experts fetch a premium price, but assure legitimacy (for the most part).
 
 Happy Dancing!