NEW YORK — Shortly after it declared independence last June, Croatia took a classic step toward proclaiming national sovereignty. It issued stamps.
Some of the stamps didn't have glue and had to be cut apart with scissors. One series commemorated air-mail routes established when the resulting civil war interrupted surface mail delivery.
They were the first Croatian stamps since World War II--sort of. Because Croatia's independence was not established, they were used "more or less out of pride" next to Yugoslav stamps, says Ekrem Spahich, executive secretary of the Croatian Philatelic Society in Borger, Tex.
But the desire for physical proof of independence was there, as it has been in the former Soviet republics, the Baltics, and other new or reborn nations. As the real world changes, the stamp world follows suit. For example:
- In October, Moscow issued a "Victory of Democratic Forces" series commemorating the three men who died in the failed August coup. They were among the last Soviet stamps and the first since czarist times to show the Russian flag.
- Armenia's first stamp since it became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 is expected to honor a multinational corporation, the United States-based American Telephone & Telegraph Co., which installed telephone switching equipment in Yerevan, the capital, last October.
- A January, 1991, shipment of Lithuanian stamps, printed in Leipzig, Germany, was impounded at the Lithuanian border by Soviet officials until the Soviet Union recognized the Baltic state in September.
None of the new stamps approaches in value the jewels of the philatelic world, valued at more than $1 million each. These include an 1856 penny magenta British Guiana stamp, an 1855 Swedish stamp printed in the wrong color (yellowish instead of blue-green), and an 1840 black British penny stamp pasted on the inverse side of a Mulready envelope--an envelope with the postage printed on it.
Rarity is one of the prime determinants of stamp value. In general, stamps are issued today in quantities that prevent their prices from rising above face value.
Philately has never quite recovered from the boom-and-bust market of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when non-philatelist investors saw stamps as a good short-term investment and inflation hedge. Prices zoomed when they entered the market and plunged when they left.
But the new issues, while not raising stamp prices, are giving new life to philately as a hobby.
