Catalogue of the Postage Stamps of Moldova

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) - this section

Section 2: Original Stamp Designs (Click here for details)

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 "GOP" - G for Gagauzia and OP for Overprint.

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.

© 2005 Niall Murphy Consulting Limited. All rights reserved. Web Design by NMC