posted March 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.

I have seen a few on the market recently for what I think are a great price but I fear that I may be looking at something other than what I believe to be an original insurance cover.

posted March 16, 2004 04:59 PM               

I know more now than I ever could have dreamed of. Maybe his response, and this post, can serve to inform others and maybe protect some of us newbies from ever buying something other than we thought.

Thanks again. The power of the collectSPACE forum comes through again.

posted March 17, 2004 06:25 PM               

quote:

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To see excellent examples of the 8 major types (three Ap11s, one each for Ap12, 13,14,15 & 16) then go here www.leonford.com and at the top click on "Insurance covers."

Remember, these things were not done officially & 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 & 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 OK 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 & wondering about the MSCSC "secondary" Insurance covers. These are absolutely Insurance covers, but not of the most popular & well known type - as shown by Leon. The Ap15 "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 & 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 & covers are exactly identical to those that were actually created & used as Ins. cvrs, but also were made available to space collectors & could have been signed after the mission. But those Ap15's that come with a letter from Mrs. Irwin stating that they are Insurance covers, ARE Insurance covers & are certainly worth collecting.

The main Ins. cvrs 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 & not made available to collectors - generally. But there were a number left over & many were stamped & canceled but not signed. As time went by many of these were sold & 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 from Ken & in the last 2-3 years & 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 & 16 the smallest number & Ap12 & 15 the most. Probably Ap12 & 15 are seen the most & Ap11's and 13 the most expensive. Apollo 11's are expensive because of it being Ap11, but probably a fair number of Ap11s 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 cvrs & I'd be glad to answer any other questions you may have. I am not an authority on Ins. cvrs & what knowledge I have I mostly got from Ken Havekotte.

My best,
Bob

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posted March 18, 2004 03:24 PM               

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 surface 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 specilist, 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.

posted March 18, 2004 03:51 PM               

100 of them at $2,500 each would have a value of at least $250,000 at this time!

posted March 18, 2004 07:38 PM               

Bob and Ken, thanks for sharing!!!

posted March 19, 2004 04:24 PM               

I have an Apollo 17 emblem cachet cover on my website that I have always wondered about. It is crew signed. I know it is not an insurance cover, but it has an interesting imprint on it of a mouse in a space helmut. Do either of you gentlemen (I use the term loosely ) know the story behind the mouse?

Excellent informational thread. We should see this type of information on this board more often.

posted March 19, 2004 07:52 PM               

Part of the problem with Apollo Insurance covers is that so much _isn't_ known or recorded about them and what info is known is not generally available. I hope we here have provided some useful & interesting info about them.

posted April 06, 2004 11:20 AM               

I know that there are no astrowings on it and no regular insurance covers exist.
Is this an insurance cover then?

I have seen a shoebox with crew signed Apollo 17 mission logo covers but they were all cancelled at the 10 or 20th anniv. from Apollo 17. I have only seen 4 of the one Ihave in my collection.