posted 09-21-2004 12:40 PM               

He told me I was wrong. He said he was an expert in space covers, he has been collecting space covers since the 50's and that there was never a cover hand cancelled on the moon.

I remember seeing at auction a cachet with a hand cancelled stamp and it said "MOON" with July 20th on the envelope. It was selling at the time for $500 but I think I wasn't bright enough to pickup on it, so I let it pass.

posted 09-21-2004 12:50 PM               

1. Apollo 11 astronauts carried to the moon a metal printing plate of the C76 moon landing stamp, a envelope franked with a imperforate copy of the stamp and a postal rubber stamp stating "Lunar Landing, 20 July 1969, USA."

2. Due to various mission tasks, the astronauts forgot to post the envelope on the moon. They completed the postmarking on their return to earth on the July 22, 1969.

3. After splashdown, the one envelope, along with the printing plate, handstamp and stamp pad, was sent to the United States Postal Service. They are now on display at the Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.

4. Because of the event, various facsimiles of the envelope was produced and identified as such on the back.

posted 09-21-2004 02:43 PM               

They canceled a cover(s) with two Decade of Space Achievements stamps affixed (one stamp showing two astronauts riding in a Lunar Rover) on the stamps' first day of issue. The US post office called it the first lunar post office.

posted 09-22-2004 06:32 AM               

Both types of covers have the "Moon Landing" postmark on the front and a Webster Aug 11, 1969 machine postmark on the back. Specimens additionally have a "Delayed in Quarantine at Lunar Receiving Laboratory, M.S.C - Houston, Texas" handstamp on the back. Those additional stamps were used on 214 covers Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins carried in their Personal Preference Kits around the moon.

Proof as well as specimen covers are numbered and have a handstamp reading:

The markings and inscriptions on this cover are examples of the usage of the postmarks and cancellations applied to mail which was carried aboard the flight of Apollo Eleven. This is not a flown cover.

On Aug. 2, 1971, Dave Scott posted the official cover with the "United States on the Moon" postmark. The Postmaster General waited at Mission Control at Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. Immediately thereafter, he gave the signal to start the first day cancellations at post offices in Houston, Kennedy Space Center, and Huntsville.

The other postmark spelling "Moon Landing, USA" was believed to be left onboard the command module with Al Worden together with the back-up cover and stamp pad.

Before Apollo 15 mission, Dr. Radnofsky made test strikes of both postmarks to insure that the cancellation devices were in working order. Especially, the date was to be changed easily.

In contrast to Apollo 11, he used covers of his Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club without any stamps. Obviously Apollo 15 lunar cancellation proofs are much scarcer than Apollo 11 ones. As by now I am aware of only 17 items.

Like most Apollo moon-landing crews Apollo 11 and Apollo 15 astronauts took covers to the moon in their Private Preference Kits. Following the instructions, none of those private covers were cancelled with a lunar postmark.