Claude
The cachet features a line-drawing illustration of a Space Shuttle in flight, rendered in black ink on white envelope stock. The stamp depicts a spacewalking astronaut in a spacesuit against a dramatic space backdrop with Earth, a planet, and a spacecraft, issued as the $0.29 Space Block Joint Issue between the USA and Russia. The pictorial postmark is circular, showing a globe with 'CHICAGO, IL 60607' at top and 'MOSCOW, RUSSIA' at bottom, dated May 29, 1992, with 'USA 29' denomination visible in the cancel. The left side of the cover contains detailed technical text identifying this as cover #1 of 10, with designer credits to Vladimir Beilin and Robert McCall.
Mistral
This First Day Cover features a detailed cachet with a black line-drawing of a Space Shuttle in flight, designed by renowned space artists Vladimir Beilin and Robert McCall. The stamp, Scott #2631, depicts a spacewalking astronaut against a backdrop of Earth and space, with vibrant magenta, yellow, cyan, and black colors. The postmark is a circular pictorial cancellation linking Chicago, Illinois, and Moscow, Russia, with the date '29 MAY 1992.' The cover includes extensive descriptive text about the stamp issue, designers, printing process, and technical details, indicating it is the first in a limited series of 10.
(The automatic summaries sometimes misidentify the postmark as part of the cachet artwork.)
