Category: 1918-1940 Semi-Postals
The following stamps below were issued in extremely small quantities, and only a small part of the stamps printed were sold to the general public by the Riga Main Post Office. In some cases they were sold at other major town offices. The rest were purchased in bulk by dealers, who even managed to initiate the issue and manipulate the sale. The background of these activities have come to light in very few cases even up to this date. The stamps are marked with surcharges of up to several 1000 % of the nominal values.
Because of these features individual stamps of such sets were hardly ever used for franking ordinary mail – except for philatelic airmail and Zeppelin covers – these stamps primarily were traded in complete sets in mint condition or on covers heavily over franked. For many years these stamps were not recognized by several international catalogues as genuine postage stamps. (Copied from The Postal and Monetary History of Latvia 1918-1945 by N. Jakimovs, V.Marcilger)
Please select a stamp group from below for more info on these.