posted June 02, 2012 08:34 AM               

Space Cover #164: John Glenn/Friendship 7 50th Anniversary Covers

Continuing with our tribute to John Glenn and the Mercury-Atlas 6 flight, this week we've presented a few covers for the February 20, 2012 50th anniversary of MA-6.

The top cover has the special Cape Canaveral/50th Anniversary Station "First American in Orbit" pictorial cancel, and along with the 2011 Alan Shepard/Mercury stamp, is a Zazzle stamp picturing Glenn's MA-6 launch

The next cover has a "50 years of Americans in Orbit" cachet and a large double-ring Cape Canaveral hand stamp cancel that cancels both the Shepard stamp and a 4 cent Project Mercury stamp from 1962.

The last cover has a special Glenn/Friendship 7 cachet and a Cape Canaveral February 20, 2012 killer-bar hand stamp cancel.

These covers were supplied by Ken Havekotte of SpaceCoast Cover Service.

posted June 03, 2012 04:04 PM               

Just for clarification, the above blue cachet with Glenn's full name on top was a production of Artcraft with design and text from CSM Enterprises and my own firm, SpaceCoast Cover Service (SCCS).

The same could also be said for Lollini's ESA Philatelic Club cover productions for MA-6/Glenn's 50th anniversary as the first American to orbit the earth. The colorful cachet designs were created by Lollini's firm in Paris, France, with help from both CSM Enterprises and SCCS.

Perhaps my favorite of all the Glenn 50th anniv. issues is the very top one featured. It was designed by Brian Dumas of Federal Way, WA. I liked his work so much that he agreed to produce another 100 or so for my firm.

All three cancel varieties, including the special pictorial postmark honoring our nation's first manned orbital spaceflight, were available at the Cape Canaveral postal facility. It should be noted, though, that the large circular cancel strike, with no killer bars, wasn't made available until last month.

The pictorial device, arranged by SCCS and CSM Enterprises, had been authorized by the U.S. Postal Service. But Cape Canaveral had been the only postal location requested and approved for such usage.