SOVIET UNION POSTAGE HANDSTAMP FRANK: 1929 ROSTOV ON DON

Rostov on Don 1929 (25 March) - Local Postage Handstamp Frank for wrappers & non postal organisations, reading "PAID 10 K. ROSTOV - DON Post Office 25 MARCH 1939 G S P" (∅ 35,5 x 44 mm), handstruck on front of a commercial postcard to Moscow. Arrival 29 March 1929. Very Fine.

Scarce, only a few examples known (all from 1928-1929). One of the three type of Postage Handstamps recorded from the Rostov GPS (city official post).

Ratner Catalogue # 18 (Post Rider 53, November 2003)

Note: Soviet Postage Handstamps ( = handstruck) were first introduced in late 1924 by the Soviet Post & Telegraph circular N°34/1030 from 17 November 1924 to indicate the payment done of a postal rate without the use of adhesive stamps; in late 1927 they were followed by Postage Meters (= machines). Apart Moscow and Leningrad, a few Soviet cities used those Postage marks struck by hand for wrappers and non postal organisations mail in bulk. There was two ways to pay the postal fees with such postage handstamps: either in hard cash or through an acccount of payment in advance ("charged on account"). Handstruck Postage Franks gradually vanished from the Soviet postal scene around 1929, mainly replaced by machine meters, with a few exceptions lasting in the early 1930s.