posted 05-20-2012 10:24 PM               

Space Cover #162: Carpenter General Space Craft Covers Cachet

Space Craft Covers (SCC) are considered to be the "top of the line" covers produced in the 1960s. Joe Fitzpatrick was one of the owners and early in the history of SCC Joe attempted to broaden the business from the servicing and printing of SCC cachets for space flights to also include servicing covers with rubber stamp and general purpose printed cachets. In addition to these ventures, for the Project Mercury orbital flights, Joe asked Carl Swanson, the SCC artist, to create a "cheaper design style."

This led to two cachets — the first "cheaper design" cachet using only one color is depicted above for Carpenter's flight. This cachet was used for Glenn (in red) and Carpenter (in blue). A second, similar but more elaborate one, was done for Schirra (in yellow) and Cooper (in green).

The first cachet for Glenn and Carpenter, does NOT have the familiar "Swanson" inscription that is seen on "regular" SCC covers where the second one for Schirra and Cooper does have the "Swanson" inscription. None of these covers have the SCC logo included in the design.

Pictured here for comparison in the "regular" issue SCC which was done in two colors — red and orange. Another interesting difference is that for the "general" cachet the covers were serviced for both the launch and recovery times (8 AM and 4 PM) while the "regular" SCC was only serviced for the launch.

If you are a collector of SCC you should be on the look out for these covers to add to your collection. So if you see any...