*HTML is ON *UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend
Smilies Legend
If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.
T O P I C R E V I E WdaveblogDoes anyone have a list of the post offices that the Project Mercury stamp was available from on the first day of issue?RossDonald Schultz's handbook 'Project Mercury... One Step Into Space' has the full list of 305 post offices. If you don't have a copy I can send you a scan of the appropriate page. Let me know your email address.Robert PearlmanRelated to this topic, is this 1990 article from The New York Times: There is, in fact, an ''official'' cover for the Mercury stamp: the post office canceled more than three million plain stamped envelopes with the slogan First Day of Issue and dated ''Cape Canaveral, Fla., Feb. 20, 3:30 P.M., 1962.'' Many were bought by dealers, who added cachets. That leaves only 304 first-day cancels to track down. One collector, Henry B. Scheuer of New York City, has led the search. By 1986, when he wrote an article on Mercury covers for The American Philatelist, 49 cities where the stamp had been released still had not yielded Feb. 20, 1962, cancellations.Since then, he said in an interview this month, some progress has been made. But given the intensity of the devotees' search over the past 28 years, it seems unlikely that any more will turn up. Mr. Scheuer has only found one new city in the past year, he said.Mr. Scheuer is convinced that the stamps did not even go on sale in four of the 305 cities: Mansfield and Marion, Ohio, where a snowstorm apparently disrupted business, and Lawton, Okla., and Warren, Pa., for reasons that are obscure.Bob MI have a copy of an interesting article about the unofficial Mercury First Day Covers that appeared in the American First Day Cover Society's FIRST DAYS Journal in February 1982. It's written by Monte Eiserman and is entitled "Twenty Years Later... Project Mercury Revisited." It gives an interesting and informative account of the search for and collecting of the unofficial Mercury FDCs from the 305 official post offices. Space and FDC collecting interest was high back at the time of Glenn's Mercury flight and this article gives a good account of the collecting frenzy surrounding the unofficial Mercury FDCs. If Dave is interested, I'll send him my copy of the 8-page article for him to make copies from.daveblogI just got the Schultz book on eBay, and it is a great little reference about the Mercury missions. I would love to see the first days article, it appears to be one that I do not have yet. Thanks for everyone's help so far.
There is, in fact, an ''official'' cover for the Mercury stamp: the post office canceled more than three million plain stamped envelopes with the slogan First Day of Issue and dated ''Cape Canaveral, Fla., Feb. 20, 3:30 P.M., 1962.'' Many were bought by dealers, who added cachets. That leaves only 304 first-day cancels to track down. One collector, Henry B. Scheuer of New York City, has led the search. By 1986, when he wrote an article on Mercury covers for The American Philatelist, 49 cities where the stamp had been released still had not yielded Feb. 20, 1962, cancellations.Since then, he said in an interview this month, some progress has been made. But given the intensity of the devotees' search over the past 28 years, it seems unlikely that any more will turn up. Mr. Scheuer has only found one new city in the past year, he said.Mr. Scheuer is convinced that the stamps did not even go on sale in four of the 305 cities: Mansfield and Marion, Ohio, where a snowstorm apparently disrupted business, and Lawton, Okla., and Warren, Pa., for reasons that are obscure.
Since then, he said in an interview this month, some progress has been made. But given the intensity of the devotees' search over the past 28 years, it seems unlikely that any more will turn up. Mr. Scheuer has only found one new city in the past year, he said.
Mr. Scheuer is convinced that the stamps did not even go on sale in four of the 305 cities: Mansfield and Marion, Ohio, where a snowstorm apparently disrupted business, and Lawton, Okla., and Warren, Pa., for reasons that are obscure.
It gives an interesting and informative account of the search for and collecting of the unofficial Mercury FDCs from the 305 official post offices.
Space and FDC collecting interest was high back at the time of Glenn's Mercury flight and this article gives a good account of the collecting frenzy surrounding the unofficial Mercury FDCs.
If Dave is interested, I'll send him my copy of the 8-page article for him to make copies from.
Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts
Copyright 1999-2024 collectSPACE. All rights reserved.