Recent issue acquisition fail

So I was able to get a message to a contact in Macedonia who would have been able to get me a copy of the stamp that I mentioned a few days ago.  Unfortunately, it was not to be.  My contact wrote…

Bad news.....i walk all day around in Skopje to all Post offices to find this stamp but no success, then i went to the main post office where they keep all stamps and they should have BUT NOOO SORRY....the Lady there explained to me that this stamp was on sold only for 3 weeks, and they stop sail this because of some argue regarding the picture of the stamp THE SPACE SHUTTLE was American or Russian bla bla bla.....She suggest me to check on internet or to someone who has bought this stamps, but they sale now more expensive....SORRY

Looking back at the stamp image on Macedonia Post’s website, there isn’t a picture of the shuttle, but of an astronaut above the earth in an EVA suit.  According to various Wiki pages, the first man in space was Yuri Gagarin, and his flight launched on April 12, 1961.  The first EVA was performed from the Voskhod 2 by Alexey Leonov on March 18, 1965.  I’m not as familiar with the spotting differences between American and Russian EVA suits (except for the national symbols displayed on them), so I can’t say whether the stamp depicted an American or Russian astronaut.

My first thought on reading the message from my contact above was that maybe we’ll see something like when the US pane of cowboy stamps was issued, recalled and reissued a few years ago.  Well, regardless of what happens, I’ve now got a couple auction alerts set up looking for this stamp.  Maybe I’ll get a copy after all…