posted 03-09-2020 03:45 AM               

Koch illustration (type A) | Koch illustration (type B)

Space Cover 554: Koch cachet covers

Usually space cachet makers are associated to only one country space activities, even if covers bear different space launches centers, all they belong to same nation (for instance, Goldcraft covers bear postmarks at Wallops, CC, VAFB, etc but not for space events outside USA).

Aug 11, 1971 Trivandrum (India). First date known for Koch covers. Note that this first use is only in black ink without background in another color.

German dealer Koch (you can see the signature at the right bottom of the above cover) produced covers for rocket launches in Thumba from 1971 to 1972. Exactly seven covers for Thumba launches were issued with the following dates:

Koch illustration (Type A)
• Aug 11, 1971
  
• Oct 7, 1971
  
• Dec 9, 1971
  
• Dec 23, 1971
  
• Dec 30, 1971
  
• Jan 8, 1972

All covers postmarked in 1971 refers to Russian M100 rocket launches meanwhile cover postmarked in 1972 is for a British sounding rocket Petrel.

Koch illustration (Type B)
• Sep 21, 1971

This cover commemorates an Indian Rohini 300 sounding rocket launch.

Dec 30, 1971 Trivandrum (India). The use of two inks for this illustration sometimes leaves variations in printed process. As shown here, blue was misplaced.

Koch’s illustrations, curiously without signature, were used to issue covers postmarked at Woomera from 1973 to 1976. The author has found just eight covers for this period with following dates:

Koch illustration (Type A)
• Apr 19, 1973
  
• Jun 24, 1975
  
• Feb 26, 1976
  
• Nov 5, 1976
  
• Nov 10, 1976

  Koch illustration (Type B)

• Apr 18, 1973 (2 covers)
  
• Sep 6, 1974

All covers postmarked at Woomera refer to European sounding rockets.

Sep 6, 1974 Woomera (Australia). Jabiru, or Jaguar, is three-stage British sounding rocket.

Nov 10, 1976 Woomera (Australia). Last date known for Koch covers. A Canadian sounding Black Brant rocket (misspelled Brandt on cover).

At this point all Koch covers are printed illustrations.

However, a third kind of Koch cover exists with illustration type A. It is a rubber stamp cachet, with signature near the image, postmarked in Mazagón, Huelva province, Spain.

This cover commemorates the launch of a British Skua sounding rocket in Huelva 5 campaign from launch base “El Arenosillo”. As this Spanish launch place has not post office, the cover was postmarked in the near town of Mazagón.

Jan 24, 1976 Mazagón, Huelva (Spain). Only Koch rubber stamp cachet known on cover.

No rubber stamp cachet with Koch illustration type B has been found.

As long I have ever seen, it is the first time a same cachet maker provided covers from three different space programs located in three different space places.

If maybe I was wrong in some of the information here published, please do not hesitate to add, suggest or correct what you think could improve the information about Koch covers. Thanks.

posted 03-09-2020 09:08 AM               

I dealt with a Jack Koch for many years starting in the 1970s. While he was of German extraction, he was definitely an Australian stamp dealer from Bay Stamps in South Australia. I have several hundred of his covers from Woomera, Alice Springs, etc., including the two Woomera covers you illustrate. None are signed.

He never offered me nor mentioned covers from countries other than Australia. I must admit, however, that the signed covers have a similar style to some of Jack's.

posted 03-10-2020 10:53 AM               

I never bought anything from Koch, nor did I have any contact with him. My guess was that he was German by last name, and because the postmarked envelope in Huelva comes from a German collector (Peter Wilhelm).

I cannot doubt if you had contact with Jack Koch (Australian dealer), and he never told you that he had made envelopes for other space bases outside Australia, but it is curious to see how the illustrations used are the same.

To this day I don't have any additional information to state if Koch were two dealers with the same last name, or just one. But it is also curious that the space covers from Thumba or from El Arenosillo bear the signature Koch, and the envelopes of Australia show the same images but without the signature.

In order to clarify something about this issue and always referring to the illustrations shown here (called by me, A and B) these are the data that I have:

1. Thumba covers postmarked from 11 Aug 1971 to 8 Jan 1972. Printed covers with Koch signature.

2. Australia covers postmarked in Woomera from 19 Apr 1973 to 10 Nov 1976. Printed covers without Koch signature.

3. Spain cover postmarked Mazagón, Huelva on 24 Jan 1976. Rubber stamp cachet (no printed) with Koch signature. Only known space cover.

posted 03-10-2020 02:05 PM               

As a matter of fact, I took advantage in ordering many of his re-entered Skylab oxygen tank debris paperweights in 1979. Each unit was $22 postpaid to the USA four decades ago.

Unfortunately, I never did purchase hardly any of his cachet rocket launch covers from Woomera, India, nor Spain all throughout the 1970's, but did receive a very small limited supply of them mostly as exchange/trade material between us.

By the way, J. Koch's signature on the above Indian rocket range cover at Thumba is indeed the same "J. Koch" of Australia.

There is another "Koch" that I know of from space cover dealings during the mid/late 1970's. His name was Rob Koch of Amsterdam, Holland, a space cover collector and I think a small part-time dealer as well.

posted 03-10-2020 03:03 PM               

This is a close-up image of the Koch signature.

I do not realize that signature could be really J.Koch instead of just Koch.

My guess about this dealer was German, or the German origin, begins with El Arenosillo cover because this cover was produced/created in Germany on request of Peter Wilhelm, a great German astrocollector, who had many contacts around the world with many dealers or with other collectors.

Even today, it is almost impossible to receive Indian space covers produced in India by Indian dealers/collectors. So, logic tell us that Indian space covers from Thumba were produced outside India, maybe by J.Koch, or simply Koch. If he was in Germany, Holland or Australia I do not know. This is the question at the moment.

Spansih cover with rubber stamp cachet most probably was created in Germany using the same image (type A) like printed covers from Thumba. In fact Huelva 5 campaign was a German campaign of sounding-rockets launched in 1976 from El Arenosillo (Spain).

As previously told, Peter Wilhelm decided to create covers from this space launch base and took benefit of your German contacts. Probably sent the covers to someone involved in the launch campaign (German engineer or technician) who carried this cover until post office.

Unfortunately I do not know where J.Koch actually is. I have not found webpage nor reference to Koch covers.