This is a survey of the

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

s and

postal history Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of the use of postage stamps and covers and associated postal artifacts illustrating historical episodes in the development of postal systems. The term is at ...

Transnistria Transnistria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), is an unrecognised breakaway state that is internationally recognised as a part of Moldova. Transnistria controls most of the narrow strip of land between the Dniester riv ...

, an unrecognized breakaway territory of

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistri ...

and the de facto independent

Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic Transnistria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), is an unrecognised breakaway state that is internationally recognised as a part of Moldova. Transnistria controls most of the narrow strip of land between the Dniester riv ...

Before independence

Tiraspol Zemstvo stamps

In the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

Tiraspol Tiraspol or Tirișpolea ( ro, Tiraspol, Moldovan Cyrillic: Тираспол, ; russian: Тира́споль, ; uk, Тирасполь, Tyraspol') is the capital of Transnistria (''de facto''), a breakaway state of Moldova, where it is the th ...

was an administrative centre of the Tiraspol

Uyezd An uezd (also spelled uyezd; rus, уе́зд, p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context ( uk, повіт), or Kreis in Baltic-German context, was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Russian Empire, and the ea ...

located in the

Kherson Governorate The Kherson Governorate (1802–1922; russian: Херсонская губерния, translit.: ''Khersonskaya guberniya''; uk, Херсонська губернія, translit=Khersonska huberniia), was an administrative territorial unit (als ...

. On January 1, 1873, the Tiraspol

Zemstvo A ''zemstvo'' ( rus, земство, p=ˈzʲɛmstvə, plural ''zemstva'' – rus, земства) was an institution of local government set up during the great emancipation reform of 1861 carried out in Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexande ...

began running the official

local post A local post is a mail service that operates only within a limited geographical area, typically a city or a single transportation route. Historically, some local posts have been operated by governments, while others, known as private local p ...

al service. Two

Zemstvo stamp A Zemstvo stamp was a Russian local stamp used widely in rural areas from 1865. It was named after the Zemstvo local administrative districts or uyezds that were created in 1864. The stamps ceased at about the time of the 1917 Russian revolution. ...

s were issued for this purpose, in 1873 and 1879, that were cancelled with a pen. Additionally, free, non-denominated official labels were printed in 1875 but they were not postage stamps.

Romanian occupation

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the territory was occupied by the

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n military forces, and the Transnistrian Government was established. Romania issued special postage stamps for Transnistria in 1941 and 1943, and

semi-postal A semi-postal stamp or semipostal stamp, also known as a charity stamp, is a postage stamp issued to raise money for a particular purpose (such as a charitable cause) and sold at a premium over the postal value. Typically the stamp shows two deno ...

s in 1942. File:Duca Voda.JPG, Postage stamps of Romania for Transnistria, 1941, with a Tiraspol

postmark A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit ...

. File:StampRomaniaTrasnistria1941Michel703.jpg, A Romanian stamp for Transnistria on piece and postmarked Tiraspol 1941. File:StampRomania1942Michel752.JPG, A semi-postal of Romania for Transnistria, 1942.

Tiraspol provisional stamps

Transnistria declared its independence from

on September 2, 1990, and in June 1992, the postal authorities in Tiraspol, the capital and administrative centre of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic,

overprint An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a Postage stamp, postage or revenue stamp, postal stationery, banknote or Ticket (admission), ticket after it has been Printing, printed. Post offices most often use ...

sheets A bed sheet is a rectangular piece of cloth used either singly or in a pair as bedding, which is larger in length and width than a mattress, and which is placed immediately above a mattress or bed, but below blankets and other bedding (such as ...

of two

definitive stamp A definitive stamp is a postage stamp that is part of the regular issue of a country's stamps, available for sale by the post office for an extended period of time and designed to serve the everyday postal needs of the country. The term is used in ...

s of the former Soviet Union. The overprints read '' 'Тирасполь / 30-VI-92' '' (''Tiraspol / 30-June-92'') and two new values, '' '20 коп.' '' (''20

kopeck The kopek or kopeck ( rus, копейка, p=kɐˈpʲejkə, ukr, копійка, translit=kopiika, p=koˈpʲijkə, be, капейка) is or was a coin or a currency unit of a number of countries in Eastern Europe closely associated with t ...

s'') and '' '28 коп.' '' (''28 kopecks''). These provisionals were only in use from July 3 to July 21, 1992, and were then confiscated and destroyed by Moldavian authorities in Kishinev (now Chișinău).

First PMR stamps

On November 18, 1993, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (Council) of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic made decision on issuing the first stamps. The first Transnistria stamp was designed by Grigoriy Bronza and appeared on December 31, 1993. Since then it has typically issued between 3 and 5 different series of stamps per year. The region's name is given only in

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...

, as '' 'ПОЧТА ПМР' '' (''POST OF PMR'', with ''PMR'' standing for ''Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic'').

Validity

The postage stamps of Transnistria are not recognised outside of the country and are valid only for domestic service within Transnistria. International mail and mail to the rest of Moldova requires Moldovan postage stamps. File:Марка ансамбля Виорика.jpg, Postage stamps of Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, 2015. File:Georgi Stamatov 2019 stamp of Transnistria.jpg, Postage stamps of Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, 2019.

Bogus PMR stamps

Bogus stamp issues have been a problem in the region for several years, with private persons overprinting stamps of the Soviet Union or printing labels resembling Transnistrian stamps, and selling them to unsuspecting collectors. The bogus stamps usually give the region's name in

, as '' 'ПМР' '', although sometimes the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

letters '' 'PMR' '' are seen instead. There is no consistent practice, with some stamps only inscribed in Cyrillic and others only in Latin.

References

External links

* * {{PostalhistoryEurope History of Transnistria