Postcards and stamps
Wednesday morning I had a meeting in the offices of KATO, (the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators).
Just down the corridor from their office is that of the company that prints the stamps for the Kyrgyz office. A short while the executive Director of KATO took me into their office and we spent about 30 minutes looking through their catalogues. It was a very interesting visit – a paradise for serious stamp collectors.
Now, I am not a stamp collector. Back in the UK, I used to collect postcards, (real postcards – not like these), and I had many albums from filled with examples from around the world.
It was a somewhat eclectic collection. Some I had bought myself as souvenirs on my various travels around the world. I liked to get postcards as a reminder – the pictures were nearly always better than the photos that I would manage to take. Others were postcards that I received from friends and relatives who were fulfilling their holiday duty of sending a postcard saying “Wish you were here!” to show that they hadn’t forgotten you as they relaxed on the beach. Often they would arrive home long before the Post Office managed to deliver their greeting – but, as they say, “it’s the thought that counts”. I was given some of them by people who knew that I was collecting them – indeed, one of my aunts gave me various sets which she have collected on her various trips around the world. Then again, I bought some from dealers – especially the old vintage ones, (but there weren’t that many of them).
New, blank, postcards are not always as valuable as ones that have been written on, even if they are in pristine condition. There may be thousands of each particular card, but once it has a message written on it, then it is unique, and has special value. Of course, that, value is increased if the message is to or from someone famous or contains something of special note.
When I came out here in 1995, I knew it was unlikely that I would be able to make any significant additions to my collection. I had been here for a two week holiday the previous year and so I knew that there were very few postcards around … at that time there just wasn’t a demand for them. Indeed, the only place I had come across where there were fewer postcards was Albania, just after the Communist government there fell. These days it’s different and there are lots of postcards – we even have some of our own, which Celestial Mountains have published – although, to be honest, it can still be difficult to find them, especially outside Bishkek. It’s not at all like the sea front at Weston- Super-Mare when I was growing up, which was lined with stalls bedecked with racks of them.
When I eventually realised that I was going to be staying here and extremely unlikely to ever be able to use or add to the collection, I gave it to my brother, (who probably cursed under his breath as he thanked me), with the instructions that he could what he liked with them – store them, give them to his children, sell them (if he could find anyone who might want to buy them).
Occasionally we get an email asking us to send someone a postcard from “your country”. On one occasion it was for a school project – the class were going to create a massive collage with images from all the countries of the world. As a former schoolteacher, of course, I was happy to oblige, however, I am not sure that our postcard arrived in time … the vagaries of the postal service are such that sometimes it takes only a few days for a letter to arrive, but sometimes it can take weeks.
I notice that there are several sites on the internet asking people to send a postcard and when they are received it is duly posted on the site and, as part of the deal, one is sent back in return. I have even come across one site which offers an exchange service. You can request an address of one of the registered users and then send off the postcard to them. They register when it arrives and your name and address is then given to another surfer who sends you one.
Sometimes, it seems as if the postcard is not the main point of interest. I once duly sent off the postcard as requested and received in reply a dutiful “thank you” message – but with the postscript “it’s a pity that it was in an envelope and the stamp wasn’t attached.”
Now, how do you explain that the post office here prefer the postcards to be put into an envelope? I know that it always struck me as odd. However, for a time that was the system!
A lot of visitors are amazed when we tell them NOT to try and post their postcards in a postbox, (some of them don’t have any bases and the postcards just fall through to the floor, and no-one ever empties them if they do), but to take them to the post office and hand them over the counter, or to hand them into reception and we would see that they were posted. They were even more amazed if they went to the post office themselves, and they were presented with an envelope to put them in. In fact, however, the post office has recently changed the system back so that postcards can now be sent with just a stamp and without an envelope.
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Stamps are collected by enthusiasts all over the world. Philately is a hobby carried out by children and adults alike. Some collectors specialise in acquiring stamps from a particular part of the world; others seek out commemorative stamps which convey a theme – for example sports events; whilst many prize “First Day Covers” – items which have stamps that bear a mark to show that they were used on the day of issue – the first day they were made available for sale; and special souvenir sheets are also sought after by specialist collectors. Stamps with any form of defect are considered to be of particular value and interest.
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One of the marks of an independent state is the issue of postage stamps. Postage stamps are not only tokens that a fee has been paid in exchange for conveying letters etc., they are also a symbol of the pride of the nation.
The Kyrgyz Republic became an independent state on 31st August, 1991 and the first postage stamps issued by the new republic appeared on 4th February 1992.
In addition to the issue of standard “definitives” – stamps with a basic design of several denominations generally used over a period of time – special stamps to commemorate some event, anniversary or theme are issued from time to time. Many countries take pride in producing especially colourful and imaginative stamps – and although interest in this topic is relatively new in terms of Kyrgyzstan – the young republic has made a bold entry into this “shop window on the world”.
The first stamp featured Lake Sary Chelek. The face value was 15 kopek – the Kyrgyz national currency (the som) was introduced only on 10th May 1993 – and up until this date all stamps were still denominated in the rouble. (The official rate was originally 1 som = 200 ruble. There has been a revaluation of the rouble since then.) The first stamps to be denominated in the som (or tiyin) appeared on 29th June 1993 – and were original Soviet stamps with the word Kyrgyzstan overprinted (in Cyrillic, of course), and displaying values in the new currency.
Commemorative stamps issued by the Kyrgyz postal service have marked
- Kyrgyz culture : the Manas epic, historical monuments, the yurt, traditional musical instruments, national dress, Bishkek;
- the natural environment : Sary Chelek, Issyk Kul, Flora (mountain flowers,), Fauna (eagles, the snow leopard, Kyrgyz fish, marmot, bear, wolf, horses, reptiles, butterflies, snakes, dogs … even dinosaurs), minerals, natural “monuments”, “Save the Aral Sea” ;
- anniversaries of memorable dates : Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War (WWII), 50th anniversary of the UN, 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, 125th anniversary of the International Postal Union, Osh -3000, 50th Anniversary of UNHCR, 10th anniversary of independence, 10th anniversary of the CIS;
- important events : Kyrgyzstan joining the UN, the International Year of the Mountains;
- holidays : Independence Day, Constitution Day;
- personalities : Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jnr., Lenin, Panfilov, Pushkin, Ramses II, Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrei Sakharov, Kurmanbek Baatyr, Kurmanjan Datka;
- art: architecture, painting, music, sculpture, national dress, traditional crafts;
- sports : the Olympic games, the World Kickboxing championships;
- miscellaneous themes : tourism, 2001 – the Year of Tourism, Decorations (honours) of the Kyrgyz Republic.
A number of special souvenir sheets have also been produced.
The stamps are produced under special contracts – several were printed in Minsk, Belarus.
In 2002, a catalogue of stamps issued by the republic was published to mark the 10th anniversary of the issue of the first stamps by the new state. For those interested, the state agency responsible for the design and issue of postage stamps (Kyrgyz Markasy) also has it’s own website: www.stamp.elcat.kg
Stamp collectors should be aware, however, that in recent years there have apparently been fake Kyrgyz stamps offered for sale over the internet.
Bishkek