Issued from December 1918, the wheat-ears and sunrise emblem for this series was designed by Ansis Zuhrul and lithographed by A. Schnackenburg of Riga. Shortage of paper led to surprising materials being used. At first the stamps were printed on the back of German military maps in sheets of 228 subjects.

Subsequently school exercise-books were used and stamps exhibit a pattern of thin horizontal blue lines and latterly thin transparent (cigarette) paper or medium wove paper was used.

Stamps overprinted Z.A. were used by the Northwestern Army fighting the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.