Russia 1857 First Issue 10 Kopeck

A round stamp that never was

Russia already had prepaid postal stationery before it had stamps. Envelopes paying the 5 kopeck local fee in St. Petersburg and Moscow appeared in 1845, and stamped envelopes were extended across the empire on December 1, 1848. The adhesive stamp came later. In 1851 Alexey Charukovsky, a head of postal rail transport, was sent abroad to study how other countries used stamps. He visited England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany and came home in 1852, but the Crimean War stalled any change.

In 1855 Charukovsky submitted a plan to Count Vladimir Adlerberg, the head of the Postal Department. He proposed round stamps with perforation around the picture, printed in several colors with the imperial coat of arms, on paper protected against forgery. The round shape had a practical reason: Charukovsky feared that a rectangular stamp pasted carelessly on an envelope might catch a corner on a post box or another letter and peel off, sending the letter back to its sender. His project was approved on November 12, 1856.

On July 30, 1856, essays of round stamps were made under Jacques Reichel, head of the typographical department of the state printing works, in two designs, the coat of arms and a head of Mercury, each in green, blue, black and carmine. They were not approved.

Kepler's design and a broken machine

The stamp Russia actually issued was rectangular. Franz (Feodor) Kepler, a senior engraver at the state printing works, submitted his design on October 21, 1856, after studying the foreign stamps and designs Charukovsky had brought back. His model was a printer's sample stamp that the Prague firm Gottlieb Haase and Sons had proposed for Austria.

On October 20, 1857, Alexander II approved two-color samples in 10, 20 and 30 kopeck values. On November 9 he ordered that they be called "postage stamps" instead of "stempel" stamps, and printing of the 10 kopecks began that month. The paper was white and hand-made, with a watermarked numeral "1" 15 mm high. Two presses were used: one, from Berlin, printed the blue oval with the embossed coat of arms and post emblem, and the second printed the brown frame. The stamps measure about 16.3 by 22.4 mm and were printed in sheets of 100, made up of four blocks of 25.

The plan was to perforate them. But the punching machine ordered from the State Printing Works in Vienna arrived only on November 19 and in disrepair, so part of the printed 10 kopeck stamps went to the Postal Department imperforate for distribution to the provinces. That accident is why Russia's first stamp exists without perforations, and why the imperforate 10 kopecks is the catalog's number one.

Stamps for a reforming empire

Alexander II had come to the throne in March 1855, in the middle of the Crimean War, and was crowned in September 1856. His reign became known for reform, above all the 1861 Edict of Emancipation that abolished serfdom, earning him the name Alexander the Liberator. The introduction of postage stamps belongs to the first years of that reforming reign.

A circular of the Postal Department dated December 10, 1857 (December 22 by the Gregorian calendar) announced the stamps. From January 1, 1858, ordinary private letters to anywhere in the empire, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Finland had to carry the stamp matching the letter's weight. The stamps went on sale on December 10, 1857; their use began on January 1, 1858, and on March 1, 1858 in the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and Siberia.

Getting postmarks to the empire's many post offices took time, so the Postal Department ordered stamps to be cancelled with pen and ink, two crossed lines, as stamped envelopes had been. Within weeks the stamp was superseded: on January 10, 1858, perforated 20 and 30 kopeck stamps in the same design appeared, along with a perforated 10 kopecks. The numeral watermark was soon abandoned, and later 1858 printings are on unwatermarked paper.

Used, unused, and the market

Used copies are not rare, and they are collected by plate, printing and postmark. A March 2007 sale of a Russian specialist collection in the United States offered dozens of them: single used copies on and off piece sold for $220 to $1,000, a horizontal pair on piece brought $3,000, and folded letters franked with a single copy reached $2,300 to $4,750. The star of that group was a folded letter from Riga to Walk with a pair carrying both departure and arrival markings, said to be the only such cover known, which sold for $10,000.

Unused copies are another matter. About half of all used 1857 stamps carry a pen cancel, and some of those cancels have been removed to make a used stamp look unused. Specialists say most "unused" examples offered have been cleaned, and only very few genuine copies with original gum are known.

In October 2014 a lightly hinged copy with original gum, described as among the finest, was offered in New York with an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. In December 2021 an unused copy with a substantial part of its original gum, which probably came off a cover without ever being cancelled and carried a 1991 expert certificate calling it a world rarity, sold in the United States for $30,000. In September 2022 an unused horizontal pair with original gum, described as the only genuine unused pair in private hands outside the Popov Museum in St. Petersburg, sold for $130,000; as a pair, that price is not a single-stamp comparison.

Some of the most important pieces have long histories. The Smithsonian National Postal Museum holds a block of four of the 10 kopecks that came from the collection of Agathon Faberge, son of Peter Carl Faberge. It is part of George H. Kaestlin's collection of about 14,000 Imperial Russian stamps, donated by his niece in 1984 and rediscovered in the museum's backlog in 2011. A strip of five is recorded as the largest known multiple.

How to identify Russia's number one

The 1857 stamp is imperforate, 10 kopecks, with a brown frame and a blue oval holding the white embossed eagle and post horns. Hold it to the light: the genuine first printing is on hand-made paper watermarked with a colorless numeral "1". Paper thickness ranges from 0.08 to 0.11 mm. Two plates exist; the first has an extra short vertical line that was removed from the second. Auction descriptions also separate sub-printings by shade, paper thickness and the strength of the embossing.

The perforated 10 kopecks of 1858 shares the design but is perforated about 14.5 by 15, and the unwatermarked printings of 1858 lack the "1".

Entire forgeries exist, mostly crude lithographs with no watermark and a badly drawn background of vertical lines, lacking the fine alternating lines of short strokes or dots in the original. For any copy described as unused, an expert certificate matters: a 2022 sale description noted that "unused" examples surfacing over the years have generally been found to be cleaned or to have had their pen cancels removed.

Legacy

Kepler's design had a long life. The 1, 3 and 5 kopeck values of 1864 introduced a new coat-of-arms design, but the 10, 20 and 30 kopecks kept the original pattern; one history notes that the 10 and 20 kopecks did not change design until 1875, 17 years after the first stamps. In 1874 Russia was one of the 22 original members of the General Postal Union.

Soviet and Russian postal authorities have repeatedly commemorated the first stamp with stamps, miniature sheets and postcards, and its history is the subject of numerous articles and books.

The numbers

Issue date

December 10, 1857 (Julian) / December 22, 1857 (Gregorian); valid from January 1, 1858

Value

10 kopecks, letter up to 1 lot (about 12.8 g)

Colors

Brown frame, blue center with embossed eagle

Printing

Typography, two presses

Paper

White hand-made paper, 0.08 to 0.11 mm thick

Watermark

Numeral "1", 15 mm high

Perforation

Imperforate

Size

About 16.3 x 22.4 mm

Sheet

100 stamps in four blocks of 25

Plates

Two (I and II)

Quantity printed

Not reliably stated in the sources consulted

Largest known multiple

Strip of five

Timeline

1. 1851

   Alexey Charukovsky is sent abroad to study the use of postage stamps.

2. 1852

   Charukovsky returns to Russia; the Crimean War delays any change.

3. 1855

   Charukovsky submits a stamp project to Count Vladimir Adlerberg, head of the Postal Department.

4. Jul 30, 1856

   Round essays in two designs are made under Jacques Reichel; they are not approved.

5. Oct 21, 1856

   Franz Kepler submits his rectangular design.

6. Nov 12, 1856

   Charukovsky's project to introduce adhesive stamps is approved.

7. Oct 20, 1857

   Alexander II approves two-color samples in 10, 20 and 30 kopeck values.

8. Nov 1857

   Printing of the 10 kopecks begins on watermarked hand-made paper; the perforating machine from Vienna arrives on November 19 in disrepair.

9. Dec 10, 1857

   The Postal Department's circular issues the stamp (December 22 by the Gregorian calendar); stamps go on sale.

10. Jan 1, 1858

    Stamps become mandatory for ordinary private letters in the empire, Poland and Finland.

11. Jan 10, 1858

    Perforated 10, 20 and 30 kopeck stamps appear.

12. Mar 1, 1858

    Stamp use begins in the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and Siberia.

13. 1984

    George H. Kaestlin's Imperial Russia collection, including a block of four ex-Faberge, is donated to the Smithsonian.

14. Mar 7, 2007

    A Russian specialist collection is sold in the United States, with used singles from $220 and a pair on cover at $10,000.

15. 2011

    The Kaestlin collection is rediscovered in the Smithsonian's backlog.

16. Oct 2014

    A lightly hinged copy with original gum is offered in New York at an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000.

17. Dec 7, 2021

    An unused copy with part original gum sells for $30,000 in the United States.

18. Sep 13, 2022

    An unused pair with original gum sells for $130,000 in the United States.

The world in 1857

• Mar 23, 1857

  Elisha Otis's first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway in New York City.

• May 10, 1857

  The Indian Rebellion of 1857 begins when the 3rd Light Cavalry rebels against its British officers.

• Sep 1857

  The Panic of 1857 begins in the United States.

• Sep 22, 1857

  The Russian ship of the line Lefort sinks in a squall in the Gulf of Finland with the loss of 826 lives.

• Dec 7, 1857

  U.S. Consul Townsend Harris meets the Shogun in Edo, the first such meeting with a foreign diplomat.

• Dec 20, 1857

  Emperor Franz Joseph orders Vienna's city walls demolished, making way for the Ringstrasse.

• 1861

  Alexander II's Edict of Emancipation abolishes serfdom in Russia.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Russia 1857 First Issue 10 Kopeck is number 63 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (60 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Russia's first stamps were nearly round: the planner feared a square corner would snag on a mailbox and tear the stamp off.
• The stamp exists imperforate because the perforating machine ordered from Vienna arrived broken.
• Post offices had no cancelling devices at first, so clerks crossed out the stamps by hand with pen and ink.
• Kepler based his design on a sample stamp that a printer in Prague had proposed for Austria.
• About half of all used copies carry pen cancels, and some have been chemically removed to fake an unused stamp.
• A block of four once owned by Agathon Faberge, son of the jeweler, sat unrecognized in the Smithsonian's backlog until 2011.