Soviet stamps with Lenin: telling the issues apart

Stamps · 3 September 2026

The same portrait was printed for decades, so a "Lenin stamp" is not one item but hundreds. The open archive holds 183 such issues from 1920 to 1991. They are separated by catalogue number, year, face value, perforation and paper: the same design with different perforation counts as two catalogue positions.

How the issues are distributed

• 1920s – 12 issues: the most interesting period, with overprints and printing varieties.
• 1930s – 2 issues.
• 1940s – 19 issues.
• 1950s – 18 issues.
• 1960s – 54 issues, the peak.
• 1970s – 40 issues.
• 1980s – 27 issues, 1990–1991 – 11.

Five ways to tell them apart

1. CPA catalogue number. The primary key: tied to a specific issue and year.
2. Face value. One design was printed at several values – separate positions.
3. Perforation. Perforated and imperforate versions of the same issue differ in scarcity.
4. Paper and shade. Different paper and ink shade are catalogued as varieties.
5. Overprint. Text over an existing stamp is its own position – and the most commonly forged one.

What carries value

Early 1920s issues, imperforate versions, overprints and stamps with printing errors. Mass issues of the 1960s to 1980s are the most common in family albums and are worth very little. The full set of signs is in the guide on the value of a Soviet stamp.

Where to browse

The Soviet Union section of the open catalogue holds 6,423 stamps from 1918 to 1991 with CPA numbers preserved. Open it: the country page or the full catalogue with year filters.