posted 10-19-2008 08:07 PM               

EDIT: I did a little more searching online and found a past auction listing for a bunch of Apollo 15 covers, "each cover with facsimile of astronaut's signatures and with small "F. Herrick Herrick" label, purported to have gone to the moon and back but in reality these are unflown souvenirs..." Hmmmmm. Continuing what I originally posted:

This one comes with a letter of provenance from Worden to Herrick, but I'm guessing it's just a copy. (I sent that question to the dealer.)

These are more rare than the Sieger covers, but I don't know if they are more desirable to collectors. Can anyone more knowedgeable of covers tell us anything about this listing in particular and these items in general?

Here, from another cS page, is a quote from the 1972 investigation on the items carried to the moon by Apollo 15:

144 Apollo 15 covers which were carried by Worden. 100 of these were especially printed with a cachet showing 15 phases of the moon and marked with the launch and recovery dates by F. Herrick, a philatelist and friend of Worden's, with the aid of Herrick's son. Herrick had advised the Apollo 15 crew to carry first-day covers and to then store them safely for some years, during which they would become valuable collector's items. On the USS Okinawa, the Apollo 15 recovery ship, the astronauts placed two eight-cent stamps purchased on board by Worden on each of these covers and they had the covers canceled by the shipboard post office. The astronauts later autographed these covers while flying back from Hawaii to Houston...

posted 10-20-2008 06:19 AM               

The remaining 60 covers were given to Herrick for safekeeping.

In 1972 NASA confiscated those 60 covers. In 1983 NASA returned them to Apollo 15 crew. These 60 covers are accompanied by a notarial certificate signed by Dave Scott, Al Worden and Jim Irwin.

According to SPACE UNIT research at least 500 identical covers exist. They are signed by the crew at least partly with same colours as flown covers.

Some of the them additionally have KSC JUL 26, 1971 machine cancellation of other type than Scott and Sieger type flown covers. These definitively are not flown.

Some moon-phase covers which were not confiscated are accompanied by a Les Winick certificate. As long as I do not know which criteria lead to these certificates, I do not trust them.

Even if a cover comes with original hand-written letter by Al Worden, there is no guarantee that cover and letter were not mixed up during the decades after Apollo 15 flight.

posted 10-24-2008 03:20 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
I wish that Herrick himself would provide more info and details regarding the mysterious "souvenir" batch of unflown covers that are almost identical to the real thing.

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Hi Ken,

posted 10-28-2008 04:49 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob M:
Whether genuine or not, the cover sold for $3,250 to eBay bidder "Allepe."

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