A word on postal history of Tuva... Almost all of what is on the market is philatelic. The pre-1934 covers are expensive, and most of the post-1934 postally used covers aren't in circulation (at least anywhere in the west). But in most stamp auctions you will see Tuvan covers...what gives?
Remember the scoundrel Bela Sekula? Well it was in his interest to prove to the philatelic world that these stamps really were postally valid. So he had some 5000 covers manufactured (in Moscow) and sent to several mail drops...in Swizerland, Austria, and New York. These covers typically had complete sets of stamps on them (and were obviously philatelic). These are the most common Tuvan covers on the market.
To make Bela's claims stick, he also had covers properly franked and mailed (again from Moscow) to most of the major stamp journals. Here's a cover sent to Linn's (stamp newspaper with biggest circulation in the US):
Philatelists in the west bought some of the mint stamps of Tuva, prepared covers and mailed them to Tuva to be postmarked and returned by mail. A true use of the stamps, but kind of cheating.
Not to be outdone, the Soviets cheated as well. They had a cancelling device from Tuva sent to the philatelic offices in Moscow. They then started intercepting this philatelic mail, cancelled the stamps with the Tuvan device and sent them back from Moscow...saving them the expense of conveyance to remote Tuva. See Cronin's detective work in Rossica...basically you must look at the backstamps to see where and how fast the cover traveled. It took more than 9 days to make it from Tuva to New York! On many of the philatelically produced covers made for Bela, the Soviet Philatelic Association's return address is plainly given on the back of the envelope. I guess they weren't trying to hide what they were doing???
Contrast that to this cover
which may be commercial or philatelic, but in either case really travelled from Tuva to Moscow. Note it was posted on February 10th and didn't arrive in Moscow till April 9th 1927.
