|
Author
|
Topic: Covers: 55 years since Yuri Gagarin's flight
|
fimych
Member Posts: 228
From: Boston MA, USA
Registered: Jun 2015
|
posted 07-28-2016 03:32 PM
   
This year marked a 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight, that triggered a major astrophilately event in Russia. Twelve and a half thousand full sheets of 2009 Gagarin stamps were overprinted (total 125,000 stamps). Special postmarks were issued for seven cities and towns, Moscow got two. Additional three alternative postmarks were used in Baikonur, Gagarin and Smolensk. Moscow Planetarium held special cancellation ceremony on April 11. Several types of official cards and covers were issued plus numerous private designs. I had no intention to get all the variations, as Gagarin is not my favorite subject but the some I have, make it a small inventory, that I would like to share. Due to the small amount of available overprinted stamps many covers got only the clean 2009 values instead of the new ones. As far as I know the full sheets were sold only to the members of the Russian Philatelic Society and then appeared on the market for the much higher prices. Some regions did not get the stamps at all, so to get the covers with 55 years of Gagarin flights cancellations over new stamps proved to be a tricky business (at least for me). As usual many fakes appeared, featuring various anomalies like double overprints etc. Note, all of the items are very common and widely available for low budget. Moscow got two variations of the special postmarks (plus a Cosmonautics day postmark). Here are several private postcards.  
A ceremony held in Moscow Planetarium was on April 11, with 100 special covers and red cancellations. Surprisingly most of the covers were presented to children and around 20-30 left to the collectors automatically making them a "rarity." Moreover, the new stamp became available at the post offices only by noon, thus making it almost impossible to get the covers with Planetarium cancellations over the overprinted Gagarin. This is the example of the serviced cover with old 2009 Gagarin stamps plus Planetarium cancellation.  Kaluga official postcard issue and special postmark. Anyone who applied the postmark in Kaluga post office could get a special official vignette presented below.  |
fimych
Member Posts: 228
From: Boston MA, USA
Registered: Jun 2015
|
posted 07-28-2016 03:45 PM
Krasnoyarsk was another city to get a special postmark. Here is a couple of covers with private cachet. 
Two Chelyabinsk covers – very nice privately designed vignettes and cachets.  
|
fimych
Member Posts: 228
From: Boston MA, USA
Registered: Jun 2015
|
posted 07-28-2016 03:45 PM
Engels near Saratov – the landing site of Gagarin called “Gagarin’s Field” got not only the postmark by official logo that could applied at the post office. Three private designs, the first one is a services cover with overprinted Gagarin stamps.   Official cover with Krasnodar special postmark on the part of the overprinted sheet.  |
fimych
Member Posts: 228
From: Boston MA, USA
Registered: Jun 2015
|
posted 07-28-2016 04:14 PM
Surprisingly Star City got no special postmark for the event, what is left is to enjoy a nice private cachet that looks like a special cancellation. BaikonurSvyazInform issued its own cards and special postmark. Here are two serviced pieces with Cosmonautics day cancellation and overprinted stamps.  
|
fimych
Member Posts: 228
From: Boston MA, USA
Registered: Jun 2015
|
posted 07-28-2016 04:16 PM
Gagarin town of Smolensk district got another alternative solution. It used the postmark issued for 50 years of Gagarin flight that was adopted for 55th anniversary by changing 0 to 5. The last but not the least – Klushino cancellation – a small village where Yuri Gagarin was born. The card was designed and postmarked by a very dedicated collector who got to the village post-office personally, as they do not work remotely.  I miss several items like Sochi, Novosibirsk, Moscow blue logo cachet, Krasnoyarsk official postcards, etc. |
cosmos-walter
Member Posts: 691
From: Salzburg, Austria
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted 07-29-2016 02:48 PM
Another special postmarked commemorating the 55th anniversary of first manned space flight was used on board ISS. As always, ISS got the same zip code as Moscow main post office. Yuri Malenchenko wrote letters with this special postmark to a few fellow cosmonauts like Andrey Boroisenko. They all are signed by all crew mates Yuri met in space during this mission. |
fimych
Member Posts: 228
From: Boston MA, USA
Registered: Jun 2015
|
posted 07-30-2016 06:05 AM
Walter, very nice cover and great addition to any collection! I would wish only that the new overprinted stamps were supplied to ISS. |
cosmos-walter
Member Posts: 691
From: Salzburg, Austria
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted 07-30-2016 08:01 AM
The overprinted Gagarin stamp was issued on 12.04.2016. There was no possibility to bring it on board ISS before Yuri Malenchenko returned the postmark to earth on 18.06.2016. |
advertisement