Stamps of Azerbaijan
As my family’s gone to a graduation party for entire afternoon and left me home to rest, I’ve got some good time to write a bit about stamps I like. So let’s dig in with stamps and history of Azerbaijan.
A general overview
I have a feeling most people (me included) know pretty close to nothing about Azerbaijan, so let’s begin with general overview. According to Wikipedia, Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. It is a democratic muslim country (first in the world) neighbored by Iran, Georgia, Armenia and Russia. It is also the winner of this years Eurovision song contest. The currency used in Azerbaijan is Manat (which is divided to 100 Qapiks), but in 1920s Transcaucasian ruble was used too.
Stamps of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920)
After the fall of the Russian Empire during 1st world war, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) declared independence. In October 1919 the ruling nationalistic government issued a set of 10 stamps representing national symbols. The set, also known as Moussavat issue (after the ruling equality party), was issued in (thin) white paper.
1920 Azerbaijan. The first stamp, 10k featured a soldier with national flag. Soviet Govt. re-issue, Mi 1y.
In early 1920 Soviet Russia started to make claims on Azerbaijan (and their oil), and when the Red Army marched to Baku on late April 1920, the short lived democratic state ceased to exist. The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR) was born as its successor state.
The new Soviet government reissued the Moussavat set. These can be identified from grayish or yellowish (thick) paper.
1920 Azerbaijan, 40k Farmer at sunset. Shift of black print. Likely a Soviet govt. re-issue, Michel 3y
Some values, namely 5 and 10r, of Soviet Govt. re-issues have inverted black ornaments on left side of design (see image below).
1920 Azerbaijan. 2 and 5r, Walls of Baku. Soviet Gotv. re-issues, Michel 6y and 7y. This is IMHO one of the best looking stamps of this era. Notice the inverted black heart ornament on left frame of 5r stamp (the blue background has the ornament in correct position).
Interestingly there is great difference in used stamp values between Michel and Scott. Scott prices these stamps very moderately, from 0.30$ upwards stating the white paper copies about 5x more valuable (but the prices are in italic, which means they are inconclusive). In Michel the ADR issues catalog on pretty equal range, but the Soviet Govt. re-issues are cataloged between 25-50€/each. I guess the difference is largely due to fact, that Michel states the prices of used items apply only for copies with certificate and clear date stamp.
Catalogs state the series has been heavily forged. As unused/mint stamps are of very low value compared to used ones, I’m very skeptical about the authenticity of used items in my collection. Likely all of these have fake postmarks.
Stamps of Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (1920-22)
The Soviet Republic era stamps of Azerbaijan consist mainly of surcharged stamps. The only exceptions are a set of semi-postal stamps (1922) and the definitive series of 1922 (see image below):
1922 Azerbaijan Soviet Republic. Most designs on this series are heavily influenced by Soviet ideology.
Once again, catalogs warn once again about plentiful forgeries, and there is a heavy mismatch between Michel and Scott catalog values. Whereas Scott prices the single stamps very close to catalog minimum value, Michel has catalog values in range of 10-150€ each.
Once again I would suspect all my copies to bear a forged cancellation.
Stamps of Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (1922-23)
On March 1922 Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia were federated as the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR). First Azerbaijani stamps were overprinted for new values, and as of October 1923 Azeri stamps were replaced completely by stamps of the TSFSR. Sadly I have none of these in my collections 
The 1920s bogus issues
Below is somewhat common set of bogus issues (or as Michel calls these in footnote – ‘Schwindelausgabe’) for “White Azerbaijan”. These were printed 1923 in Italy, with a volume of 250,000 perforated sets, and 250,000 imperforated sets.
Azerbaijan bogus stamps from the 1920s. Perf and imperf sets.
The Modern era
With the fall of Soviet Union, Azerbaijan regained it’s independence in 1992. The first stamps appeared that year as well, and to date Azerbaijan has issued about 750 different stamps more. At first the stamp production was very mixed (plenty of series with ‘hot’ topics), but these days Azerbaijan appears to follow a somewhat conservative issuing practice.
A bit surprisingly, I have had hard time finding modern Azerbaijan stamps and my collection consists mainly of random values of mid 1990’s CTO-used topicals.
Modern Azerbaijan stamps. So far I've got only CTO copies like this in my collection. But I'm quite positive these exist as real used too - but in very low quantities.
Another interesting sub-chapter to postal history of Azerbaijan are the stamps of Nakhchivan exclave issued in 1993. Michel lists these, but I’m not sure if other catalogs follow the same practice.
Happy collecting!
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Hello Keijo ,
very nice article , but i have a small correction . in the 1920 blue 5 manat stamp , the symbol wasn’t an inverted heart , its how to write 5 in arabic symbols.. they write the numbers in their language with arabic characters .. so it is not any inverted thing , only five in arabic symbols.
Nagwa
Hi Nagwa,
I know… I was referring the heart ornament on LEFT side of the stamp:
Nice post! I learned something.
I checked the “1919″ National Republic issue in my Album, and I have all 1920 Soviet re-issue stamps, except for one thin white paper 25r, Temple of Eternal Fires. My 5r and 10r Soviet re-issue shows the same inverted black heart design on the left frame as you describe. I wasn’t aware the re-issue was different than the original 1919 issue for these two stamps.
That was fun-Thanks!
Thanks Jim
PS. Keep up the good work with your blog. It’s truly interesting (both content & concept wise).
I did not know about Nakhchivan stamps. Have they real use?
Hi Pablo,
Michel has a somewhat lengthy footnote about this and according to it, the Azerbaijan Post has stated the listed 2 stamps and m/s were never valid for postal use. But the editors of Michel belief / have proof of postal sale and usage of these stamps, and thus they are listed in catalog.
Keijo-
I credit you and your Blog for my “revised” Azerbaijan blog page. Thanks!
http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/2011/02/azerbaijan.html
Note: I LOVE your classical era stamp discussions. I learn something every time.
Jim Jackson
@Jim….
Thanks. I can confess that I have lots of fun writing these entries. At least for me writing down things and doing a bit of detective work makes them much more clear, and easier to remember than simply looking at the catalogs and other sources time and again.
Hope you liked the Czechoslovakian Masaryk stamps of 1925/7 post I made few nights back. If all goes well, I would expect at least 1-2 additional posts about classic Czech stamps in couple of months time.