posted 08-16-2020 08:37 AM               

Space Cover #573: Doc's Local Post

Local Post covers are nothing new to space collectors. Space City Cover Society in Houston TX have been creating their own "stamps" and postmarks since the Apollo program. These well-known covers are very nice and you can usually find them at very reasonable prices. For this entry of Space Cover of the Week I want to highlight a couple of examples of Doc's Local Post covers. These local post covers were produced by R.E. Nichol. These were done in limited quantities and are indicated as such and numbered on the back of the cover.

The first cover is postmarked at Cape Canaveral for the Apollo 11 moon landing. Mr. Nichol then obtained a Patrick AFB cancel for the 5th anniversary of this historic event. He added the NASA Local Post stamp as well as his own local post stamp and "cancelled" them and added the cachet. As indicated on the back of the cover, this is #42 of 100 covers produced. The additional 5th Anniversary cachet on the back was applied by cover servicer Robert Whitney who also obtained the postmarks.

The second cover commemorates the 10th anniversary of Alan Shepard's Mercury Redstone 3 launch. Cover is postmarked at Cape Canaveral for the anniversary. Mr. Nichol added his local post stamp commemorating the anniversary, cancelled the stamp and added the 10th anniversary cachet. The cover was serviced again by Bob Whitney who added the "Fifth Man To Walk On Moon" cachet on the front as well as the cachet on the back. Mr. Nichol indicates that this is cover #6 of 100 he produced.

I do not have much info on R.E. Nichol. He produced a good number of covers commemorating various space events and added his Doc's Local Post stamps and cancels to many of them. He also produces sets of covers for the Apollo moonlandings postmarked in Colorado Springs which is home of NORAD (North American Air Defense Command). He usually produced covers for every day of each flight and had different cachets for each day. The cachets were usually blue and pink and were very descriptive. He also added the small cachet on the back indicating how many covers he produced for the event.

If anyone has additional information on R.E. Nichol please do not hesitate to share!