posted 09-08-2019 02:21 PM               

Space Cover #531: From Montclair To The Moon – 50 Years Later, Part 2

Continuing from my previous post, Space Cover of the Week 523, I have chosen a few Apollo 11 anniversary covers to highlight.

As previously mentioned, Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin's hometown is Montclair NJ. My hometown in New Jersey is less than an hour from Montclair. For a number of years my dad and I would travel to Montclair to obtain a few cancels to celebrate Buzz Aldrin and the anniversary of the first moon landing. With the 20th anniversary we decided to do something special.

The first picture shows one of the covers we produced. It is cancelled in Montclair for the 20th anniversary of the moon landing. The printed cachet that was added was designed by my brother Mike. It is indicated by the flagpole that it is "EE1". This is the first cachet that we produced as E & E Space Covers.

As E & E Space Covers, we sold space covers through mailing lists and mail sales during the 80's and early 90's. We also had 100 of the newly issued $2.40 Priority Mail stamps honoring the moon landing flown up to New Jersey from Washington DC. Most received machine cancels and the EE1 cachet making them unofficial FDCs.

For the 25th anniversary of the moon landing, the USPS issued a couple of stamps to honor the event. Again the first day of issue ceremony was in Washington DC and we had some stamps flown up to New Jersey. We had the stamps cancelled in Montclair on July 20 as unofficial first day covers. The second picture shows one of these unofficial first day covers. Again, my brother Mike was the cachet artist and the cachet is indicated as EE5.

We were also successful this year in working with the Montclair post office to have a special cancel produced for the first day of local sale of the stamps. The Montclair Public Library held the event. My brother's artwork was used for the cancel. The third picture (below) shows one of these covers. For some reason, the USPS produced an identical cancel but twice the size of this one. We cancelled a large number of covers and everyone who attended had a great time.