Posts: 78
From: Beverly Hills, CA USA
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 08-07-2012 06:15 PM               

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I recently came across a few cacheted covers that the owner calls "Baikonur covers" each has a number (between 1 and 150 stamped on it). It appears that these were editions of 150 issued by a stamp club in the area.

Is anyone familiar with these? Are they readily available? What do they go for? I have a feeling that I should know more about these, but this is the best way to find out.

Posts: 691
From: Salzburg, Austria
Registered: Jun 2003

Posts: 38
From: saint louis mo usa
Registered: Sep 2008

Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 08-09-2012 10:17 AM               

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Well, these covers have been cancelled at Baikonur, Karaganda Oblast. The "real" Baikonur, however, is located in the Ksyl. Orda Oblast, today in Kazakstan. The next location to the cosmodrome is called Tyura Tam. Before the cosmodrome was built in the mid-50s, there was just railway station with a few houses for railway personnel in the middle of the steppe.

In the 60s, the exact location of the cosmodrome was unknown. The name Baikonur was given to it precisely to confuse Western secret services. In fact, this Baikonur ("Black Earth") that you find on the cancel is located several hundred kilometers from the cosmodrome. Which didn't stop some people to produce this sort of covers to create the impression they were produced at the cosmodrome. "Real" covers postmarked at the cosmodrome only appeared around 1975, in the wake of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Posts: 691
From: Salzburg, Austria
Registered: Jun 2003

Posts: 691
From: Salzburg, Austria
Registered: Jun 2003

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posted 08-28-2012 07:48 AM               

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I'd like to inform you about these covers. First of all they are fakes. There are a lot of such covers with different pictures and cancelled by fake post stamps with set dates devoted to different events of space explorations.

Beside of that it is necessary to point out the following moments.

The post office of Baikonur Cocmodrome has used the post stamp with this name since 27.04.1975.

Baikonur settlement is situated far from 300 km on the north-west from Karaganda City. This post office had the post stamp with the text “Baikonur, Karaganda region” (Байконур, Караганд. обл.) of two types with litters “a” and “б”. That stamp has been used at the Baikonur settlement post office until 1972. The marks of these stamps are quite rare. Genuine post stamps have 5-digits date mechanism but fake 6-digits (litter "b") and 7 digits (litter "a").

I knew the maker of these fakes. He has died in 1986.

Posts: 13
From: Villarbasse - TO - Italy
Registered: Jun 2008

posted 10-31-2012 02:05 PM               

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"Baikonur Karaganda" fakes are still circulating.

I calculated that there are many dozens of thousands of such forged items on the market. Be careful and never drop your guard. As one may learn from this very case, it seems that even top-rated eBay sellers are not a warranty.

I issued a short article on this topic, published first on AD*ASTRA the Journal of AS.IT.AF. (Italian Astrophilately Society) and then reissued on ORBIT, the Journal of ASSS (Astro Stamp Space Society-UK).

There are still many questions to be further investigated about their origin. I'd be grateful to anyone able to provide more light on this very large family of forged items.

Posts: 13
From: Villarbasse - TO - Italy
Registered: Jun 2008