posted 03-15-2004 03:50 PM               

I believe I understand their purpose; what I would like to learn is more information about the "levels" of covers, how many for each mission were produced, what is the typical price range for each mission, which sets have not yet been made availalbe to the public etc. Things of that nature.

posted 03-16-2004 11:47 AM               

• Apollo 12 (only one design, which by the way, was the first of the exclusive "astronaut pin" cachet design)
  
• Apollo 13 (two types)
  
• Apollo 14 (two types overall)
  
• Apollo 15 (two main designs, but others done unofficially), and
  
• Apollo 16 (only one).

posted 03-17-2004 06:25 PM               

Note: It has been edited a small amount (mainly prices). As we all know they are quite subjective.

Remember, these things were not done officially and were done mainly by a stamp club in Houston for each Apollo crew and were handled by that stamp club ("Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club," as seen on some of the "secondary" insurance covers) and then the astronaut families kept the covers while the mission was underway.

After they returned safely, the covers were stored away or dispersed in various ways and no "official" record was kept, especially by NASA, which, I guess, had really little or nothing to do with them. They may have given their official okay for the astronauts to create them, but they were just something that the astronaut crews did themselves with much help from the MSCSC.

You are probably confused and wondering about the MSCSC "secondary" insurance covers. These are absolutely insurance covers, but not of the most popular and well known type.

The Apollo 15 "secondary" insurance covers are certainly genuine, but because the cachets used on them were also available to collectors at that time, it's possible that some seen were canceled for the flight and then later signed by the crews - which, of course, would not make them insurance covers.

That's the problem with the secondary insurance covers: the cachets and covers are exactly identical to those that were actually created and used as insurance covers, but also were made available to space collectors and could have been signed after the mission.

But those Apollo 15's that come with a letter from Mrs. Irwin stating that they are insurance covers, ARE insurance covers and are certainly worth collecting.

The main insurance covers are unique, in that their cachet design (a crew patch/mission emblem cachet with various insignia at the bottom, such as Astronaut Wings) was used ONLY for insurance covers for Apollos 12 through 16 and not made available to collectors - generally. But there were a number left over and many were stamped and canceled but not signed.

As time went by many of these were sold and dispersed and some were later signed by one or more of the astronauts. But these are NOT insurance covers, as they were not signed by the crew, preflight, and put up to be sold in case the crew was lost.

These left over covers are generally referred to as "insurance-type" covers and pop up from time to time. I have obtained a few in the last two to three years and have had some of these canceled/unsigned insurance-type covers signed by various astronauts.

Numbers? Who knows? Probably at least 500+ for each mission would be in the ballpark. Ken could tell you better than I. But some flights had fewer done, with probably Apollo 13 and 16 the smallest number and Apollo 12 and 15 the most.

Probably Apollo 12 and 15 are seen the most and Apollo 11's and 13 the most expensive. Apollo 11's are expensive because of it being Apollo 11, but probably a fair number of Apollo 11s exist - I'm thinking that around 300+ were done for each family, but probably only a few hundred have been released.

Hope all this gives you a good background on Apollo insurance covers and I'd be glad to answer any other questions you may have. I am not an authority on insurance covers and what knowledge I have I mostly got from Ken Havekotte.

posted 03-18-2004 03:24 PM               

When NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club (MSCSC) approached Michael Collins about the possibility of providing the crew with Apollo 11 postal covers, it was decided by all the crewmembers to include — not just the club's own printed cachet envelope — but two other popular "on the market" so-to-speak cachet designs of Dow Unicover and the official mission patch, both of which, originated from the on-base Kennedy Space Center.

We know that 214, and perhaps more, were flown by the crew in lunar orbit and that Aldrin and Collins had reported earlier that "hundreds," or just about the same amount that were flown, were kept behind (all three cachet types) as the so-called first insurance or contingency covers.

To my knowledge, no one knows for sure of the exact quantity of covers that were purchased — at production cost — by the crewmembers that were signed and left behind. The Aldrin family had many (Joan for certain) as did the the Collins family.

Similar covers, all signed by the crew in advance before their moon-bound trip, have also surfaced that were in the possession of various personnel that worked exclusively inside the astronauts' personal or crew quarters while at KSC, and many with NO postal cancels!

It should be noted, for the record so-to-speak, that the MSCSC was only involved in their own stamp club printed cachet designs, contrary to what others may have believed.

An aerospace public relations specialist, after hearing about the Apollo 11 philatelic practices that originated from a Houston stamp club, wanted to do his own — and for the astronauts' exclusively and their families — a special cachet design that he also wanted direct involvement and control over. Thus, this is what created the first "insurance astronaut-insignia" cachet designs with various symbol(s) that were incorporated into the cachet design of high-quality rag content envelopes.

The special cachet covers were produced by a printing company in Cocoa, FL — not Houston — from, starting with Apollo 12, to Apollo 16. The astronaut-insignia covers, in fact, had nothing to to with the MSC Stamp Club, even though Apollo crews still maintained contact with them in signing and using (even flying some to the moon) their stamp-club cachets as another type of "insurance" cover.

Apparently, the Apollo 12 crew only used — for them personally — the non-MSCSC printed cachet that contained the Navy wings imprinted in gold ink below their crew patch design.

posted 03-18-2004 03:51 PM               

A box of covers — probably at least a hundred covers? — signed by Armstrong/Aldrin/Collins was stolen from the KSC Crew Quarters that were intended to be used as Insurance covers for Apollo 11. But no one knows what happened to them or if they were even canceled.

If they weren't canceled for the Apollo 11 launch, then if any uncanceled crew signed Apollo 11 covers appear, or canceled for an Apollo 11 anniversary, then they could be from the stolen box. It's a real mystery about what happened to these covers.

posted 03-19-2004 08:21 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob M:
A box of covers - probably at least a hundred covers? - signed by Armstrong/Aldrin/Collins was stolen from the KSC Crew Quarters that were intended to be used as Insurance covers for Apollo 11.

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This, now, is a most interesting story since similar crew-signed covers have surfaced without no postal cancels, and, even some of the Apollo 11 cachet covers were autographed ON BACK of their surfaces with nothing on the front side, except for the cachet itself.

quote:

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Originally posted by 4allmankind:
Could one of you post here why/why not any mention of any Apollo 17 ins covers?

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posted 11-19-2006 04:50 PM               

I assume that makes it an Insurance cover?

Would appreciate an experts advice!

posted 11-21-2006 07:40 AM               

If nothing else, these ads and prices (!) show how our hobby has changed and prices have skyrocketed.

The Rand ad was sent to me in 1989 after asking if they had any Apollo 11 crew signed covers available. It is believed that Rand sold a relatively large number of the three types of Apollo 11 Insurance covers then, over 100, and probably most seen nowadays came from that sale. By today's standards, $150 for an Apollo 11 Insurance cover signed by all 3 Apollo 11 astronauts is ridiculous, but back then $150 was a little high for most space covers. Now we see these same Apollo 11 Insurance Covers sell for $3,000 and more. There are stories of collectors not buying an Apollo 11 Insurance Cover from Rand for $150 because the price seemed a little high.

The second ad from Superior offers crew signed Insurance covers (although not identified as such) for Apollos 12 thru 16, with the highest cost of anyone being $49.95. If someone had bought all five, they would have paid a paltry $$164.75 for them. Of course, those five covers nowadays would easily sell for $2,000-$3,000 or more and are not easy to find.

posted 02-23-2007 03:16 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by divemaster:
If true, unless it comes with an identifying letter from the astronaut, is there any way to make the differentiation?

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It's too bad that no documentation was generally added by the astronauts or family members to the covers to positively identify them as "official" Insurance covers, although some may have had documentation added at a later time, but that isn't generally known. It is known that Charles Conrad did add documentation to the back of some of his Apollo 12 Insurance covers and this probably was done by other astronauts on some other Insurance covers (Walter Cunningham, for another, added documentation on the back the Insurance covers he owned and has sold).

posted 02-23-2007 06:01 PM               

This was done for me way back in the 80s and he even asked me "why?" I wanted to do it as he never did it before on any of his insurance covers.

posted 02-23-2007 06:22 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by divemaster:
So, what would be the tell tale signs that a similar cachet would NOT be an insurance cover?

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Secondly — Note the astronaut autograph styles and patters on them. A "true" crew-signed insurance cover would originate from that historic era, just about in most all cases, as they were signed prior to their lunar voyages. Therefore, those "vintage era" signatures contain certain characteristics that were common as they were preparing for their moon trips as astronauts.

From a close study, overall, one can determine or get a good idea of the various different pens and ink colors that were used by crewmembers while in training for a moon shot.

Thirdly — Another is placement of the signatures on the cachet envelope as many, but not all, were signed near or alongside their names as depicted on their mission crew emblem. Others, however, were signed in the middle section of the cachet covers as were most from Apollo 11, 12, 13, and some 16s.

posted 02-23-2007 08:45 PM               

If memory serves, that same cachet has appeared at auction as both an insurance and non-insurance. I was just curious as to telling the difference.

As I said, I'm not a cover collector, but this thread caught my attention.

posted 02-24-2007 05:37 AM               

Perhaps the "rarest," which may be a bad choice of words to use here, would apply to Apollo 11's crew mission emblem. They were printed at the request of the NASA Exchange Council at Kennedy Space Center within a few weeks before the scheduled moon shot.

Generally speaking, Kennedy workers would often purchase the emblem covers only "on base," but many of the cachets also found their way into nearby souvenir stores and various other outlets.

To the best of my knowledge, those patch emblem envelopes that were used as insurance covers by the crew and signed, were posted with KSC-machine cancels for the July 16th launch. I don't recall seeing or hearing of any others in that category that were posted with different markings.

The same could also apply to the Dow-Unicover cachet variety — all machine for launch to the moon.

The story changes with the other cachet production, the Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club, as Stafford carried/flew in his T-38 from KSC after launch to Houston the majority of those along with the emblem and Dow varieties, all signed by the crew beforehand. It was planned to use most, if not all, of the MSCSC cachet envelopes for postal processing when Armstrong and Aldrin landed/walked on the lunar surface.

Just about all of those covers were machine cancelled from Houston, TX, (4A) on July 20, however, some did in fact contain a "roller hand-cancel" impression while others were "missed" by a circular date during their cancel application.

But I have never seen, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, any of the Apollo 11 insurance covers from the stamp club posted for launch day.

posted 02-25-2007 02:35 AM               

Perhaps many were signed for MSCSC members, some possibly mailed in to the astronaut office there for signature requests during the later part of 1969, and in-person autograph attempts using the same cachet production throughout 1969-70.

Of course, we do know what kind of pens, inks, etc. were used by the crew on most of their insurance covers — but this doesn't necessarily mean that similar writing pens were not used by the crew in signing for other cover needs and/or requests.

Another point to remember is that the MSC Stamp Club printed 1000s of their cachet covers, all with the same Apollo 8 stamps affixed, in which they were also machine cancelled (same p.o. used) by a nearby Houston postal facility on July 20th.

Another question to wonder about; Just how many of the crew-signed covers, of all varieties, were kept by the crew, families, and friends that may had been a later batch of signed covers not perhaps originally intended for insurance purposes.

Perhaps the later question here could be a "no," but I don't think the answer to it may be an easy one as first believed.

posted 03-15-2007 05:18 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by divemaster:
I was just curious about the physical cover itself versus something similar. [postmark, stamp, date?]

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posted 07-25-2011 03:43 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by poofacio:
I have an Apollo 15 crew signed cover with a letter from Mary Irwin-Vickers stating that it is "an original Apollo 15 insurance cover - created in the event they did not return from the moon".

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posted 02-27-2012 02:06 PM               

I realize of course that these covers were not flown and thus don't strictly fit in the theme of the site, but they are so closely related to the issue of flown covers that I felt it worth making an exception in this case.

The article is written by Howard C. Weinberger, and is based in part on articles and research by Richard Jurek, Bob McLeod, and Ken Havekotte.