Vladimir Putin sez no

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the international market was flooded by postage stamps supposedly issued by various ex-Soviet regions. These stamps are bogus. The Russian Federation has even issued official statements pointing out that only centrally produced Russian stamps are valid. The stamps from Sakhalin Island are no exception. Note the text in English!

By all means, buy these stamps if you like Bearded Collies or weird stamps (I think both phenomena are pretty cool myself), but note that you probably can't sell them to a professional collector of real Russian stamps, should you be able to find one in your hometown.

Personally, I'm fond of the almost-bogus stamps from Staffa, a small islet off the Scottish coast mostly inhabited by sea birds (the goats were removed a couple of years ago), or the super-bogus Nagaland postage stamps, showing European Baroque art (yeah, like the average Naga guerrilla warrior gives a damn).

Who knows, maybe even this series of dog-related "Sakhalin postage stamps" will bring back some fond memories when you're 50.

If not, you can always procure a real Bearded Collie.

A bogus basset?

Originally posted on Amazon´s site.

LOL, Amazing Amazon sells almost everything. This is supposedly a postage stamp from Sakhalin, the elongated island off the Russian coast in the North Pacific. Except that it isn't. The official postal authorities of the Russian Federation have issued several statements, condemning these and other stamps as “illegal”. They are not approved, and probably not even printed on Russian soil. No Russian region has the right to issue stamps of its own. In this particular case, the bogus quality of the stamp is obvious. Note the text…in English, with Latin letters!

That being said, I really don't care. There is an enormous grey zone between “Absolutely Serious & Officially Approved Postage Stamps” and “Forgery that can land you in the slammer”. Whoever is producing this adorable fakes with basset hounds on them, is probably inspired by the large amount of nations that print (officially, mind you) never-ending series of stamps that aren't actually used on letters, but are sold straight to collectors…