Posts: 1336
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004

posted 03-31-2025 09:11 AM               

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I am an space autograph collector as many of you on this site know. I had a occasion to send a autograph request to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 2019. Is there anybody who knows what his signature looks like?

The signatures I received on two separate occasions do not look identical as an autopen signature would look like. I will send a scan of the signatures to anybody who wants to see it. I might add I sent for his autograph to his Gorbachev Foundation address in Moscow.

Posts: 54817
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

Posts: 1336
From: Shady Side, Md
Registered: Sep 2004

Posts: 784
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023

posted 07-03-2025 10:35 AM               

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Without being trite, it all depends on provenance and circumstance. I have accidentally bought in the past two signed pieces by him as part of two separate multiple lots.

The first was a signature on an ordinary Soviet-era style cacheted envelope for Lenin's birthday or some-such. It was part of a job lot of east European FDCs I had purchased for one or two space covers it contained. I don't remember how much I paid but well less than $50. It was recognised by a friend of mine. I gave it to him for free along with the others I had no interest in... He still has it in his collection and estimates a value of about £100/$80.

I bought a second lot from Bamford auctioneers at Derby of old (vintage/antique) tattered books, mostly 19th century German and Russian folk tales. One of them had a library index card for Solzenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago (in English, from the British Library) stuffed in it as a bookmark, which was autographed. Again, my friend recognised it - (he bought it off me for £2500). He claims he wouldn't part from it for a million. I believe he is exaggerating, but then again...