posted 07-06-2020 09:35 AM               

Space Cover 569: Mailer's Postmark Permit Covers

Mailer's Postmark Permit, typically abbreviated with the acronym MPP, is a rubber stamp that a collector uses to postmark his or her own mail. This is done for philatelic purposes as it makes for a more interesting cover, especially when mailed to another stamp collector.

Canceling one's own mail is covered in the USPS Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) section 604.3. Thus, as long as the person doing the postmarking has been issued a permit by the post office where he or she is mailing the mail from, it is legal to postmark one's own mail.

Each permit is given a number by the permitting post office and is included as part of the actual postmark.

The MPP mail should not be deposited into the postal stream like "regular" mail but be brought to a post office that has the same city/state as the permit. The majority of MPP covers never go through the mail, but are created by the collector or organization for an event for other collectors.

There are guidelines about the creation of the cancel device itself and most MPPs are very generic in nature.

One of the most prolific users of MPP was the Space City Cover Society when creating covers to sell to members/collectors. As shown above, the SCCS had permit number 1 from Houston, TX 77052. It is also shown that the cancel image can change over time. It is highly likely that these SCCS covers were never at a post office before being sold.

Kennedy Space Center has had its share of MPPs. There were MPPs created for the later Apollo missions with a MPP for Apollo 16 shown in the following scan.

Unlike the SCCS covers which designated who owned the MPP, the Apollo covers don't have a designation on the cover or in the cancel itself so I don't know who actually postmarked the covers.

The Apollo 16 MPP shows that it is permit number 16 assigned by the KSC post office.

Some of the Apollo MPP covers also have the official NASA cachet applied to them.

Does anyone know who created the Apollo MPPs? What were the previous 15 permits? What MPPs came after number 16? Does anyone have a complete collection of KSC MPPs?

So, if you are looking a something a little different to add to your collection, consider a KSC MPP.

posted 07-06-2020 11:07 AM               

The first was for Apollo 14 in Jan. 1971, with added inserted rubber stamp dates for
the launch (Jan. 31st), moonlanding (Feb. 5th), the 6th for lunar liftoff, and splashdown-recovery on the 9th. All of the MPPs for 14 had the official KSC-NASA cachet added at bottom left to each event day on government printed-stamped envelopes of two types. On the back of each cover was the KSCPS address applied by a small red rubber stamp address.

The Apollo 15 and 16 MPP covers, in most all cases, did not have NASA-ONC's applied, but instead, were color printed cachets specifically designed for each major mission event. With Apollo 15/16, though, the MPPs were post-flight printed with the date and time of an actual event being commemorated on the cover series.

posted 07-06-2020 11:47 AM               

Were these the first covers produced by KSCPS?