Interesting Cover, Need Help

Hi Friends!
I received this Registered cover from a friend in Russia a few years ago.. she is not a philatelist, I requested her to use some elephant stamp on cover she was sending to me , and she used these stamps..
Is it possible to use the stamp of Koriakia on cover posted from Russia, is it a clerical mistake as all the stamps are cancelled with same cancellation.
Here the value of Russian stamps is :25
Value of stamps of Koriakia : 7.5

Koriachia, a district in eastern Russia on the Kamchatka Peninsula. I don't have an album here, but I believe those little stamps are Russian.

Colorful cover, but the elephant labels have no franking value. Koryak okrug or Koryakia is of course not a stamp-issuing entity, but part of the Russian Federation. The labels were most probably favor-cancelled in Moscow, with the 5 Russian definitives paying the proper rate (I do not have the rates of the period at hand).

Any collectors from Russia or any one who know the postal rates of Russia during 2004 period, plz help me to identify the postage rates..
I tried to figure it out on net but couldn't find it.

The only thing I found is a table of domestic rates for all years on Russian Wikipedia. Assuming foreign registered rates increased at exactly the same rate that domestic ones did, using today's prices we can calculate that a registered letter under 20g would have cost roughly 17 RUR and one that weighs 21 to 100g would have cost 25 RUR in 2004. The assumption of the rate of increase being exactly the same is a bold one, so consider this is a very rough guesstimate.

As far as Koriakia goes, it's one of many Russian regions whose name has been known to appear on illegal stamps.
Here's an article on the topic: http://www.pwmo.org/articles/rough-trade.htm

Below is a page from WikiPhilately giving Russian postal rates after 1992:

http://www.mystampworld.com/wiki/in...%D0%B8%D0%B8

The last table concerns the international rates. As can be seen, after September 2000 and until September 2005, the international air registered letter rate (last column) up to 20gr was 18R, i.e very close to what dim4ik predicted.

Given that your letter probably weighed over 20gr, the total charge of 25R paid by the five Russian definitives possibly corresponded to the next weight rate.

Thankyou friends for the contribution, I went through the link provided by Vasia,
http://www.mystampworld.com/wiki/in...%D0%B8%D0%B8

The Google chrome translated page to English..
It shows that the rate between 13-Sep-2000 to 5-sep-2005 for an envelope below 20gm (international usage) to be 14 rubles, the last column (The fee for an order : 18), if this is the registration charges existing during that period then the total postage rate will come to 14+18=32.
In that case the total stamps used here is 32.5 rubles including Koriakia stamps ie (25+7.5)
this is just an assumption..

In the last table of the link above, columns 1-2 deal with international postcard rates, columns 3-5 with international letters up to 20gr.

Hence it would appear that the following charges apply beginning September 2000:

Regular international letter = 12R (column 3)
Airmail international letter = 14R (column 4)
+ Registration = 18R (column 5)
(I stand corrected here - this is a registration surcharge, not the total registered letter tariff.)

Your letter is definitely registered and there is an airmail handstamp. If all applicable tariffs of the table were to be factored in, this would bring the necessary franking to:

14R + 18R = 32R

And this is where the real problem exists. On your cover there are only 25R in valid Russian postage. By 2004 labels, such as the Koryakia ones, would have been strictly prohibited from central post-offices (Moscow in this case), unless some type of illegal play was involved with the implication of the postal clerk.

Here is pertinent quote from the article provided by dim4ik:

"Many illegals bear names of ex-Soviet territories. In an interesting article for the February 1999 issue of Philatelic Exporter, journalist Les Winick described how #8220;four or five major distributors#8221; in Russia employed homeworkers to create covers bearing such labels that were then postmarked, illegally, by favor."

On the page below you can read the 2002 UPU circular which on behalf of the Russian Federation warns other nations of the illegal labels from a number of territorial entities of this countryl, including the Autonomous Region of Koriakia:

http://www.pwmo.org/Illegals/frame-illegals-en.htm

Always a possibility in Russia .. Though maybe it was just pure ignorance or inattentiveness?

Here in this case it would be a clerical mistake,and no favours involved. you can see that this cover is posted to my address by a friend there who is not a philatelist , I requested her to send me the cover using any elephant stamps..
Dont know how it happened through her..
seeing this I sent her some elephant stamps of Russian republics which I had and requested her to use them on letters to me, but she told me that the post office clerk refused to use them..

Another cover with elephant used in Russian region.. seems to be UN usage as we can see the stamping at the left.

It says "Peacekeeping Forces - Sierra Leone".

Regarding the cover with the Koriakia labels, I think that your friend would have, under normal circumstances, risked getting into trouble by using them. The prominent placement of the stamps on the cover, the very stark and colorful theme and the equally clear indication of "Koriakia republic" should have triggered the alarms of the postal clerk.....UNLESS he had agreed (to put it mildly) to postmark them.

As for the "cover" from the Russian peacekeeping forces in Sierra Leone, although there seems to have existed such a small contingent, my strong impression is that it is a bogus item. Many such items were created after 1991 supposedly originating with the various Russian peacekeeping forces (particularly in Bosnia).

There would have existed no reason to use stamps, even more to create overprinted ones, for the use of military personel. Their correspondence would have been free-of-charge.

vasia, wouldn't the "00" mean the year 2000?

You are absolutely right, dim4ik!

My editing on that point coincided with your post.

https://www.stampcommunity.org/uplo...lstrike1.jpg

I am reposting the immage url here , which was already posted in another topic..

1)This cover is posted from Rhodesia to UK? (not sure)
2)Its an FDC with date of issue 1-march-1971 - there is first day cancellation on cover, and The number of stamps used is 5. five stamps would have been used to enable its postal usage, rather than just a cancelled fdc.
3)It would have reached UK with in a week
4) The postal strike ended on 8th march.
5)There is an emergency mail cancellation on cover.
But what would have happened to this cover?
*attempt is made to remove the stamps.
*white paper is struck over the stamps and re-franked and posted on 18-march-1971.

**A collector who would have received this cover will not post it again by sticking a paper and damaging the cover.
** If it was not sent to a collector,and was sent as a normal mail, then why would the person who received the mail stick a white paper and post it in his name again? (we can see that the address is not repeated or no sticker is used over the address.
**Can it be a system used by the postal department to deliver the accumulated mails during the strike period.

Can it be some effects of Postal strike?
what would have happened to this cover? any idea??