Start of the Soviet Inter-planetarian Station Mars "I"

North Vietnam, Start of the Soviet Inter-planetarian Station Mars “I”, May 21st, 1963, Michel Nr. 258-261; Four stamps in the popular space theme were issued in the nominals of 6 xu, 12 xu (two stamps) and 20 xu were issued perforated 11.0 and im-perforated. Below is the official stamp bulletin provided by Xunhasaba upon the issuance of these stamps. Note that the number of perforated and im-perforated specimens are identical with 250,000 sets each.

Here is the mint perforated set.

Im-perforated block of four canceled to order:

Registered letter sent to Klewitz in June of 1963 with the complete perforated set. The cover was franked with 72 xu which was in fact too little for a standard registered letter to West Germany (Tariff of 1.10 Dong), however, the sender duped the postal clerk into thinking the letter was actually routed to East Germany by writing “RDA” at the bottom of the address (which stood for East Germany). To that destination the required postage was only 12 xu for the letter and 60 xu for the international registration fee. To the clerk hence the letter looked like it was franked perfectly fine.

Registered letter sent to Klewitz in September of 1963. It contains the entire im-perforated set. Imperforate stamps on postally used cover are very rare. The letter was franked with 74 xu which was in fact too little for a standard registered letter to West Germany (Tariff of 1.10 Dong), however, the sender duped the postal clerk into thinking the letter was actually routed to East Germany by writing “Allemagne RD” at the bottom of the address (which stood for East Germany). To that destination the required postage was only 12 xu for the letter and 60 xu for the international registration fee. To the clerk hence the letter looked like it was slightly over-franked.

Single franking of the 12xu stamp on an international postcard that was sent from Hanoi to East Germany in April of 1965. The postcard tariff was actually only 6xu t fellow socialist countries but foreign visitors often overpaid this ban using the 12xu letter tariff.

Rare registered express mail letter sent to Klewitz in March of 1973. The letter contains one of the 20 xu stamps of the inter-planetary set plus a number of im-perforated stamps of the “Wostock 3 and 4” set. Im-perforated stamps on postally used cover are very rare. The overall franking amounted to 1.92 Dong which is above of the 1.60 Dong that would have been required for a standard registered express mail letter. So the letter may have contained a shipment of stamps and was heavier than the standard 20 grams.