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Author
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Topic: Apollo 10 patch variants and versions
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spaced out
Member Posts: 3211
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 03-13-2007 04:58 AM
   
I noticed an unusual Apollo 10 flown patch from Thomas Stafford's collection. It's not the Grumman "crew" patch, but it also doesn't really seem to match the regular AB Emblem patch.Does anyone recognise this style patch, or know who made it?  It would be nice to see which patch they were wearing on the flight suits on the recovery ship but I can't seem to find high-res pictures of the crew post-flight. Maybe it was even this design that was worn? |
Bill Hunt
Member Posts: 406
From: Irvine, CA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 03-13-2007 04:54 PM
I have a couple versions of this patch (one with light gray astronaut names and one with darker gray names), and I always assumed that they were "vintage" AB Emblem. If that's not the case I also would be interested in who did make them. |
Go4Launch
Member Posts: 563
From: Seminole, Fla.
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 03-13-2007 09:10 PM
This is an example of the patch the crewmen wore on USS Princeton on their jumpsuits.It looks a little different here, however, because the image has been slightly stretched vertically for some reason. I have no idea who did manufacture it, but I do know that it wasn't made by either AB or Lion Bros. The distinguishing characteristic is the slightly tilted first "O" in "APOLLO." |
spaced out
Member Posts: 3211
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 03-14-2007 02:28 AM
I guess that makes Apollo 10 the only mission with two unusual "crew" patches - the Grumman pre-flight portrait patch and this post-flight jumpsuit patch. |
KAPTEC
Member Posts: 648
From: Madrid, Spain
Registered: Oct 2005
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posted 03-16-2007 08:12 PM
And, by the way, the only who never used a Lion Brothers patch, I think. |
spaced out
Member Posts: 3211
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 06-26-2007 03:16 AM
Well it took me three months but I finally managed to track down one of these post-flight Apollo 10 crew patches. Having been worn on the crew's post-flight jump suits this patch certainly deserves "crew" status alongside the Grumman version. |
ScottZ
Member Posts: 79
From: Sunny florida
Registered: May 2012
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posted 08-20-2022 02:21 PM
One benefit of living next to the space center is the estate sales and antique stores that have tons of NASA items. I just picked up a couple of these Apollo 10 patches and was curious if anyone knew who the maker was. I did look on Crew Patches and think it is a post flight patch but unsure. The owner has a few of them, along with tons of paperwork on the LM and books. Any help is much appreciated.  
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J Blackburn
Member Posts: 312
From: Riner
Registered: Sep 2011
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posted 08-20-2022 10:48 PM
That appears to be a "Post Flight" version you have. However, after looking at the LM, Scott, this patch resembles more of the AS10UNK1 patch listed on Crew Patches. A very nice find. |
randyc
Member Posts: 913
From: Denver, CO USA
Registered: May 2003
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posted 07-03-2024 12:49 PM
I recently bought this Apollo 10 "Grumman" patch and noticed that the white S-Band antenna on the lunar module is very hard to see (if you hold the patch at an angle you can barely see a trace of the antenna but it uses grey thread and not white thread).Has anyone else seen this before? Does it make the patch more collectable, less collectable or have no effect on its desirability?  |
J Blackburn
Member Posts: 312
From: Riner
Registered: Sep 2011
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posted 07-03-2024 02:12 PM
Looks to be nothing more than an error patch. More than likely the embroidery machine had a malfunction. If you look at the bottom left of the Roman Numeral X the white thread border extends to much out to the left of the numeral X instead of connecting with the green and blue threaded outline. I would refer to the picture on crewpatches.com for a reference. As far as the patch goes it does not make it anymore valuable or unique in this case with the missing antenna which evidently has a small gray line and with the bottom of the X not matching it is just a mistake due to a malfunction. Sometimes error patches have a little more value if a name is misspelled or the wrong color thread was used. Most of the time these patches were simply discarded but we as collectors sometimes make them into something they are not. I think AB Emblem has realized this and now offers error patches for sale on their website. Usually for the same price at the correct one or a couple dollars more or less. I don't blame them, make some money from a mistake instead of just throwing them away. |
randyc
Member Posts: 913
From: Denver, CO USA
Registered: May 2003
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posted 07-03-2024 04:10 PM
Thank you for the information. In addition to the misalignment of the white area at the bottom of the 'X' the grey end of the 'X' at the top is shifted up.I know that AB Emblem has been selling "error" patches but that is for patches where hundreds or thousands of patches were made. Since the Apollo 10 "Grumman" patch is much rarer than AB Emblem's and Lion Brothers' Apollo 10 patches with only a few available each year (according to Chris Spain's Crew Patches website) I wasn't sure if an error patch such as this one would be even rarer and thus be more highly collectible among patch collectors than one with no errors. |
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