These are 3 Soviet stamps cancelled on the 22nd of June 1941 in Raseiniai. It has been clearly soaked from a paper but I guess these are CTO. CTO is a postmark used on stamps even though it has not been postally used, generally for collector's need. 22 June 1941 is actually the last day of the regular service of Soviet post office in Raseiniai because the following day on 23rd, the Germans arrived and thus began the famous battle of Raseiniai. There are also overprinted local Raseiniai stamps using the exact same CTOs but personally speaking, it does not make any sense to me. Why would you want to cancel a stamp with a postmark of the former occupier, especially when it comes to "liberation" issues. It's kinda weird to me and so far I haven't heard or read any "satisfactory" explanation. So, for this reason, I love those 3 stamps above which make more sense to me!
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| Raseiniai local issue with a Soviet postmark, authenticated by Dr. Gerhard Krischke |
These look absolutely fabulous... Which may be the reason the CTOs were manufactured. A postal historian may not necessarily like/prefer CTOs, but when/if you're into used stamps only (especially the socked-on-the-nose specimens), these are absolutely the best the world has to offer. At least that's how I see these ;)
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Part of the reason why some people don't like Soviet CTO is because of mass production Moscow CTO in the 70's and the 80's. It has been a good lesson for me to know that CTO can have significant historical value as well, and I have to agree with you totally that in some cases CTOs are the best the world has to offer ;)
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