Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410080004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY GREINER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
``It's the most ridiculous thing we ever hoid.''
When the tiny Republic of Abkhazia - in the former Soviet Union - recently issued its first official postage stamps, the influence of the West was obvious.
Where you would expect to see the two figures most commonly associated with Russian history - Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin - the stamps depict the smiling faces of Groucho Marx and John Lennon.
Legal for use as postage in Abkhazia, the stamps have been issued in limited editions of just 10,000 sets worldwide. (By comparison, hundreds of millions of U.S. Elvis commemorative stamps were printed.)
Each stamp, with both Cyrillic and English lettering, is about four times the size of a U.S. postage stamp and comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity within a colorful souvenir sheet.
They're available for a short time for $8.75 (plus $3 postage and handling) for the set and include free pocket guides of little-known facts about Lennon and Marx (Groucho, that is).
Contact the International Collectors Society, 10045 Red Run Blvd., Suite 170PL, Owing Mills, Md. 21117 or call 1-(800) 624-4427.
by CNB