posted 06-14-2014 01:34 PM               

The cover pictured is a classic Charles Riser made cover for the early NASA Project Mercury Little Joe 6 rocket test, October 4, 1959, Wallops Island, Virginia. This rare cover has all the characteristics of a Charles Riser fake cover including U.S. Government embossed envelope, artistic cachet with typewritten text, large hand cancel for the Little Joe test, and the cover not having gone through the mail. A real test cover of this difficult early Little Joe rocket test would sell for approximately $1,000. As a fake cover, though, the Riser contrived cover has only nominal value as a fake reference cover.

A second contrived cover example is shown for the recovery of astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. after America's first astronaut space flight. Shepard was recovered by a MAG-26 recovery helo, from the USS Lake Champlain, CVS-39, May 5, 1961, near Grand Bahama Island, in the Atlantic Ocean. A real Alan Shepard USS Lake Champlain primary recovery ship cover would sell for approximately $2,000. The Riser fake cover pictured above has only nominal value as a reference copy cover. Astronaut signatures on Riser covers are also faked as collectors have discovered. This signature for Alan B. Shepard, Jr. is an excellent example of one such fake.

Space Cover #269 – Charles Riser Covers, Too Good to be True?

The early space mission and recovery ship covers were beautiful on pristine U.S. Government embossed envelopes with well struck hand cancels for several of the most difficult space rocket tests and ship recoveries to find. Additional launch covers for early Little Joe rocket tests at Wallops Island, Virginia, were also available. These were covers that both space collectors and recovery ship collectors had searched for, for years. The covers also were missing from many astute, knowledgeable collectors' collections. And now, here they were in very small quantities in the stock of a space cover and ship recovery cover dealer in a small town, Bowie, Maryland. Unfortunately, the covers being sold by this dealer were all fakes.

So, how did Charles Riser's sale of rare fake covers come unraveled? Former U.S. Navy service member Sean Marsar provides insight on this in the September, 2008, issue of the "Universal Ship Cancellation Society Log." Marsar stated that he started buying space covers from Riser who was then a space cover dealer with hard to find space and recovery ship covers. When Riser's first package arrived, Marsar was surprised to see that all the recovery ship cancels were on U.S. Government printed air mail envelopes. A few months later he located a dealer of postal stationery stock in Long Island, New York who mentioned to him that a space cover dealer named Charles Riser had bought 700 blank embossed 6 and 7 cent airmail covers.

Sean Marsar commented, "The news hit me like a ton of bricks!" He decided to immediately contact the U.S. Postal Inspectors with his damning information. The inspectors decided to bait a trap and marked 95 blank envelopes with a special marking that would only show up under ultraviolet light. They then placed the marked envelopes in the stock of the dealer who had provided Riser with blank stock covers. In March 1974, Sean Marsar received a difficult Gemini 8 primary recovery ship cover for USS Leonard F. Mason, DD-852, from Riser, and when he placed the cover under ultraviolet light, the cover displayed the USPS specially coded marking. The trap for identifying who was producing the fake space and recovery ship covers had been sprung.

Going to trial, 14 different space covers and ship covers were presented by U.S. Government prosecutors as evidence against Charles Riser, a defendant in U.S. Federal Court for mail fraud. In the 14 covers presented as evidence against Riser, the following primary recovery ship covers were used: USS Lake Champlain, USS Decatur, USS La Salle, USS Leonard F. Mason, USS Noa, USS Randolph, and USS Stormes. Charles Riser was found guilty of mail fraud March 11, 1975, and was given four years of probation. He was also ordered to inform the court concerning his illicit fraud of the covers that had been faked. His response back included the faking of 51 different covers, including both space covers and ship covers.

Faked Charles Riser cover for primary recovery ship USS Randolph, CVS-15, July 21, 1961, for the recovery by MAG 26 helo of astronaut Gus Grissom, in the Atlantic Ocean after his 300 mile suborbital flight. Both the primary recovery ship cover and Grissom's autograph are faked. Another telltale sign is the red U.S. Navy Department seal. A seal provided by the ship for the cover would have the ship's name, USS Randolph, in the seal, not the U.S. Navy Department. A real astronaut Gus Grissom autograph on a genuine USS Randolph primary recovery ship cover would sell for approximately $2,500.

Now, many years later, Charles Riser's story is an interesting and cautionary study in collecting both ship covers and space covers and possibly collecting other valuable covers as well. If a rare or difficult cover has a price that sounds too good to be true, then quite possibly, it isn't.

posted 06-14-2014 01:58 PM               

There is a mission-by-mission listing of the suspect Riser covers in the Space Unit CD entitled "Study of Suspect Space Covers" by Paul Bulver, Ben Ramkissoon, and Les Winick.

One can order the CD from the Space Unit Secretary:

Dave Blog
PO Box 174
Bergenfield, NJ 07621
USA

posted 06-14-2014 02:50 PM               

The Wallops Island cover shown at the top of the page is my initiation into the Riser Fake Cover Club for a mere $300, ouch! Was stunned, to say the least, that the cover of this really great, rare space event, and cancelled at Wallops Island, Virginia, was faked.

Thank you also for spreading the word about Paul, Ben, and Les' study of Riser contrived covers. It is a major reference in this area, and one that I also use as well.

posted 06-27-2014 07:45 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by NAAmodel#240:
Anyone think a Riser could have only stamps?

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Though Riser produced many fake covers he was a both a space cover dealer and a servicer (Andromeda/Cyngus cachets) that produced, bought and sold thousands of genuine covers. Certainly one should be wary of the government air mail envelope covers as it was proven that Riser produced fake covers on that type of cover. There has not been, to my knowledge, any "proven" Riser fakes with stamps.