posted 06-25-2011 12:20 PM               

Space Cover #115: Space Anniversary Covers

Most space collectors consider anniversary covers of little collecting concern and even unnecessary. But back in the heyday of space cover collecting, the 1960's and 1970's, cachet/cover dealers and servicers turned out and sold large numbers of anniversary covers for many past significant space events, and even for too many insignificant events. Surely many older collections contain boxes of mostly forgotten and unappreciated space covers, with anniversary covers well represented.

However, anniversary covers can be of collecting interest and use. For example, some early space and aerospace events occurred before there were any cover servicers and interest, and anniversary covers are sometimes all that are available for some early space events. And as these first two covers show, they can be useful and appropriate for adding relevant autographs (The top cover, autographed by Buzz Aldrin, is a NASA/KSC official cachet cover for the first anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The second cover marks the 25th anniversary of the first supersonic flight and, like so many of these also autographed by Chuck Yeager, has its inaccurate cachet information corrected by "Buck" Yeager).

The third cover is a fairly typical anniversary cover and prominently states that it marks the 15th anniversary of the formation of NASA (ho-hum).

The bottom cover marks the 50th anniversary of Bumper 8, the first rocket launch at Cape Canaveral. This superb cover, created by Ken Havekotte of Space Coast Cover Service, has a special Bumper 8 pictorial cancel; a photo cachet picturing the actual launch of Bumper 8; and four stamps showing early rocket launches.

Two of these four anniversary covers do serve a purpose, as certainly no covers exist canceled on the date and at the location of the first supersonic flight or the Bumper 8 launch.

(Anyone wish to show an anniversary cover marking a totally insignificant event and/or a non-standard anniversary year?).

posted 06-25-2011 03:13 PM               

This one is in line with the "Buck" Yeager cover in your original post, only it is for the 37th anniversary of Yeager's supersonic flight. It was one of a series of covers put out by the Postal Commemorative Society's "International Tributes to the History of Flight" series. People had to subscribe to this series of covers for something like $10 a month, and they received a different cover each month, if I remember right.