posted 08-01-2014 05:57 AM               

Are these launch and recovery times?

posted 08-01-2014 06:00 PM               

Sometimes postmarks were applied at PC or CC on the same morning or afternoon that the launch happened. Sometimes the mail just didn't get processed until the afternoon after a morning launch, or the day after a late PM launch.

You really have to go back to the mission reports to find launch times and recovery times. The McMahan Catalog has some, but not all of the launch/recovery times.

To answer your specific requests:

Big Joe 1 was launched at 8:19 am on 9/9/59, so the AM postmark would be the most desirable. But I've only seen the PM postmarks from PC for that day. Is there an AM postmark?

MR-2 was complicated. It launched at 11:55 AM. So, AM postmarks are available for it, but was the postmaster hovering over the cover, waiting for the sound of launch to postmark the covers prior to noon? Likely not, and likely postmarked in the PM with an AM still in the postmark hub. Recovery was in the PM.

MA-4 was launched at 9:04 am, landed at 10:55 am, but was recovered 1 hour 22 minutes after landing (in the PM). Another complicated mess! I just noticed that my USS Decatur cover for that recovery was postmarked with an "AM" in the hub. Likely postmarked in the afternoon before the postmaster changed to a "PM" in the hub...

posted 08-02-2014 04:32 AM               

I agree sometimes it's difficult to find your way in some cancels. And surely the postmaster had a big involvement in that matter.

posted 08-02-2014 09:48 AM               

The "purist" is concerned with having the appropriate cancel (AM or PM) but most collectors don't even look at the AM/PM and are only concerned with the correct date.

Thus in your example of the Talking Robot "value" most collectors would buy either the AM or the PM cancel for the same amount.

Wally Schirra's flight is another good example - I have seen launch cacheted covers with AM and PM cancels as well as recovery cacheted covers with AM and PM cancels.

As micropooz points out sometimes the "correct" version may not exist - Big Joe with "AM" cancel. I have never seen one either. I don't know of any collector that would say their Big Joe postcard doesn't represent the launch that day.

posted 08-15-2014 07:49 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by NAAmodel#240:
...the "sharp" PM cancels may have been applied by a dealer intent on a cleaner look?

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posted 08-20-2014 06:48 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by bobslittlebro:
...they decided to make their own PC hand cancel and apply them to covers which seem to be mainly early Mercury flight covers.

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posted 08-21-2014 05:08 AM               

Throughout the later Apollo program years, I do believe there was a fake, or unauthorized, Cape hand cancel in use by a former well-known space cover dealer. He would often back-date mainly Gemini and Apollo cachet covers of his production, sometimes even years afterwards!

I am referring to the "Plugged 9" cancel strikes so often found on Gemini and Apollo produced Orbit Covers.

U.S. postal authorities were made aware of the "9" incident during the 1970s, but not only with the Plugged 9 feature, but also with other cancel characteristics. Their conclusion, based on my understanding, pointed in a direction of a possible "back date" cancel device from Canaveral post office, though not authorized for such purposes.

It has always been my belief, though, that the Plugged 9 postmark device was never a genuine hand cancel device from the Cape postal station, neither authorized nor paid for by the government. Instead, simply put, it was a privately-made hand cancel stamp impression put in use by an ex-space cover dealer referred to here.

As orders for specific Orbit Covers were placed to the dealer, even years afterwards, (say like for Apollo 11 in July 1969), he would first re-print his Apollo 11 engraved cachet covers and later use his own Cape Canaveral hand stamp device with whatever dates were needed as the days were exchangeable in the rubber stamp device.

posted 09-15-2014 04:30 PM               

An example are the Tartu covers in the early Soyuz days. Les Winick contacted Kniga who told him that they were illegal and he passed that along to the Space Unit. But it turns out that the cancels were good, but the cachets were "illegal" in the government's eyes because they had told clubs to stop this capitalistic means of selling covers.