Space Cover 767: Meter cancelsLike many of you reading this I have been a collector of cacheted space covers for a long time but until recently I had passed up adding to my collection envelopes with the red meter cancels when I saw them in dealer boxes at stamp shows.
This past weekend at the Great American Stamp Show (GASS) sponsored by the American Philatelic Society (APS), the American First Day Cover Society (AFDCS) and the American Topical Association (ATA), I came across a small grouping of these meter cancelled envelopes with various space themes and realized they certainly tell a story of the public's fascination with the topic of space.
Here are a few of my favorite new acquisitions.
The first envelope (above) features a meter cancel dated Saint Louis, MO May 15, '63 celebrating the 2nd anniversary of Freedom 7 and Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard as the first American in Space with the text reading "First Free Man in Space".
McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was instrumental in the Mercury Program and the success of the Mercury capsule design led to the company adopting a logo featuring the capsule circling the Earth. This cover features a cachet with a similar logo and the typed text, "McDonnell - St. Louis, MO, Home of the 'Mercury Capsule'".
The second envelope features a Douglas Aircraft Company meter cancel from Huntington Beach, CA dated Dec 2 '69 with the slogan "Moon Rocket NASA Douglas Saturn S-IVB" and an image of the top stage of a rocket and the Moon. Douglas was a NASA contractor designing the S-IVB stage of the Saturn IB rocket and Saturn V rockets.
On April 28, 1967, the two companies joined forces merging to become McDonnell Douglas Corporation.
The third cover features a Wapakoneta, Ohio Aug 19 '71 meter cancel with the text, "Wapakoneta Ohio, Home of Neil A. Armstrong, First Man on the Moon." I am not sure of the significance of the date but Wapakoneta has celebrated their most famous son often throughout the years since the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Hamilton Standard return address envelope dated Feb 19 '70 in Windsor Locks, CT with an image of the lunar module with text reading "space & life systems".
Hamilton Standard, located in Windsor Locks, CT was a division of United Aircraft Corporation which developed environmental systems. For the Apollo 11 moon landing the personal life support system (PLSS) was developed by Hamilton Standard and worn by astronauts on the moon.
Sheppard Envelope Co. of Worcester MA dated Aug 28 69 Worcester MA, with text celebrating rocket pioneer Robert Goddard.
Worcester is the home of Robert Hutchings Goddard who was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which was successfully launched on March 16, 1926.
The Sheppard Envelope Company was founded in 1921 by two brothers and today more than a century later is still going strong and located in Auburn, Massachusetts.
While not on an envelope, this meter cancel has a terrific image of a the Hasselblad 500 EL date camera, and is dated 04.11.70 for the launch of Apollo 13 and cancelled in Goteborg Sweden home of the Hasselblad company. Hasselblad cameras brought the world incredible images of space and the Moon.
Included here is also a sticker proclaiming, "Hasselblad, the camera that took pictures on the Moon."
I plan to continue to build my meter cancel collection. What meter cancel envelopes do you have in your collections?
posted 08-19-2024 09:18 PM
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