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I first came to
be a collector of Pridnestrovie
stamps through the Moldova route
rather then the more usual
"Former Soviet Union" way.
Having already built up a
extensive Moldova collection, I
decided to include
Pridnestrovie as a
regional curiosity.
In my
innocence (or arrogance), I did
not know what I was letting
myself in for. I started with
the typical mint "complete" year
sets. These were surprisingly
difficult to find and even more
surprisingly expensive. I
persevered eventually I found what I needed
at reasonable prices.
Yes, I knew
there were some minisheets, a
imperforate varieties and probably a hand
full of overprint varieties. "No
problem", I thought, "I can pick
these up later". How wrong I
was.
Little is
known in the West
about Pridnestrovie (or Transnistria as it
is most commonly, but
incorrectly known), a break-away
state from Moldova. Nobody
could even agree what it's
correct name was. It's actually
"Pridnestrovskaia
Moldavskaia Respublica"
(formal name) or Pridnestrovie
(informal name) or "PMR" for
short. By the way, even some
of their own stamps don't have
this correct.
From Pridnestrovie,
there was a whole new country
collection to be acquired, with
dozens of varieties, minisheets,
imperforates etc. Additionally
there were all those "Tiraspol"
locals, civil war overprints,
"Europa CEPT" issues and totally bogus
material.
By the winter
of 2005, I realised that I has
amassed a very substantial
collection for Pridnestrovie. I figured that if I
put all the information and
scanned images I had, into
proper listings, I would have
the most comprehensive English
language catalogue of this
region. |
Since I am a
professional web designer, I
realised that, given the time, I
could create a valuable on-line
resource for all the world's
Pridnestrovie stamp collectors. Any and all
interested parties are invited to add their
views, comments, feedback and
most especially, their
information about new, unknown
and/or unlisted stamps. If we
all co-operate in this, we will
be able to produce the
definitive listing for this
region.
So, it is with
great pleasure that I present to
you the web site
www.PMRstamps.org I hope
you find the information listed
in here to be useful and
accurate. And as I said before,
I welcome all comments, opinions
and feedback, but most
especially, I want your
information about new and
unlisted material that I have
omitted.
I
continue to seeking the official
approval and technical support
of the Pridnestrovie postal
authorities for this resource.
If successful, I will be
able to list planned issues in
advance, perhaps with some
preview images. Also I may be
able to get access to previously
unknown material from the post
office archives.
Niall Murphy
Editor
PMRstamps.org
February 2011 |
