Background:
Gagauzia is a region in southern Moldova. It
is primarily inhabited by ethnic Turkish
Christians. In or around 1995 there was a
movement to gain a special semi-autonomous
status for the region within Moldova and
this was granted some years later. During
1995 a number of Moldovan and former USSR
stamps were overprinted to appear as though
they were issued by a Gagauzia as an
independent state. There were also stamp
"issues" featuring original designs bearing
the name "Gagauzia". ALL of this material is
completely unofficial and bogus. At no time
did Gagauzia operate a postal service
independently of Moldova. At no time did the
Moldovan post office issue stamps for use in
Gagauzia. Some postally used covers have
been seen bearing Gagauzian stamps, but
these are all fakes also. These stamps were
all privately made either for propaganda
purposes or in the case of more recent
products, purely for speculative reasons.
Our Objective: It is
the policy of the major commercial stamp
catalogue publishers not to list bogus
issues. This can sometimes leave the
unsuspecting collector to believing that
they are buying rare, unlisted but genuine
and valuable stamps. Our aim is to supply
the all factual information and then let
collectors make an informed decision about
their collecting requirements.
Categorisation of the
Stamps: In this catalogue we categorise
the Gagauzian stamps under two headings:
Section 1:
Bogus Overprints
(on stamps of Moldova or the USSR)
Section 2: Original Stamp
Designs - this section
Scope of the Listings: In this catalogue, we will
attempt to list all known bogus and
cinderella issues bearing the the name
"Gagauzia". There are bound to be more items that
we have omitted and we will add these to our
lists as we discover them. If you know of any other
material of this type, please send us a scan
and details by eMail to
info@moldovastamps.com
Naturally, none of the major
international catalogue publishers will list
any of this material, so we will only use our
own Moldova Stamps (Mst) catalogue numbers
in this section. The catalogue prefix is "GD"
- G for Gagauzia and D for Original Design.
Caution: Under FIP regulations,
bogus issues of this type will not be
allowed entry into exhibitions organised
under the FIP umbrella. The FIP wishes to
discourage the practice of issuing bogus
stamps for purely speculative purposes. The
FIP recommends that collectors do not take
any of this material into their collections.
Any collection that contains this type of
material will be disqualified from receiving
FIP exhibition awards.
