posted 11-08-2010 12:31 PM               

Space Cover #82, Did Morris Beck notice?

Do you notice anything peculiar about the scanned covers from the USS Cochrane for the recovery of Gemini 6A? The covers have the highly sought after Morris Beck printed cachet. Collectors sent their blank covers to Morris Beck who applied his printed cachet and forwarded the envelopes to the ship for cancellation. All of Morris' efforts are greatly appreciated and there is a strong following of collectors who have made his cachets a major part of their collections.

The "normal" Gemini 6A has a brown textured background as pictured in the top image. The "error" version in the lower image has a plain background. This is the only one of these I have ever seen.

Interestingly, at the same stamp show where I found this cover there were some other ships for Gemini 6A (USS Ponchatoula, USS Rupertus and USS Renshaw) that also had the missing textured background. All of the covers were addressed to the same collector. Did Morris Beck run this collector's covers through the printing process separate from the other he received? Were these the only ones to have the missing color? After printing these envelopes did Morris notice the error and correct it on future cover printings or did Morris not notice these at all?

A fantastic resource to see write-ups and scans for Morris Beck printed cachets is Owen Murray's Beck Naval Cover website. It is constantly being updated as finds such as this one in this post are discovered and passed on to Owen.

Just because you think you have a Beck cover don't pass up taking a closer look because where there was one made there may be more. So if you find one...