posted 04-26-2013 07:28 PM
Liftoff for a probably full season of stamps and covers to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova. Takeoff for Vostok 6 was 16 June 1963.Here is a pictorial postmarker used at Berlin on 13 April 2013. It shows a portrait of Tereshkova, the Vostok spacecraft and a seagull — her call sign was "Chaika" or "Seagull."
The postmarker was used on the occasion of "AstroPhila 2013," a joint German-Russian exhibition on space philately in the Russian House for Science and Culture in the German capital.
For the occasion, postal services issued a printed cacheted cover. Printrun was just 500 copies. On a recent ebay sale, the cover already went for a high bid of over 20 Euros.
The organizers, Weltraum Philatelie, had a personalized stamp printed showing the front page of their upcoming bulletin that depicts a portrait of Tereshkova. 1000 copies of the stamps were printed, and they were sold out at the early afternoon of the stamp show.