posted 04-17-2022 09:51 AM               

Apollo 1 NASA/KSC cachet replica

At the time of the tenth anniversary of Apollo 1 in 1977, very long-time space cover dealer Sean Marsar offered to have collectors' Apollo 1 anniversary covers rubber stamped with a replica/copy of the Apollo 1 official NASA/KSC cachet (ONC). It was a free service and he stated that he would use black ink to identify the "anniversary" cachets from the actual blue Apollo 1 ONCs.

I took advantage of his offer and sent him three Apollo 1 tenth anniversary KSC covers and they came back nicely rubber stamped with the replica cachet in black ink. Then I mailed one to the parents of Apollo 1 astronaut Roger Chaffee and it was signed by both his father and mother as shown here.

Also shown is a scan of two of the replica ONCs enlarged, with one having "JOHN F. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - NASA" included beneath the standard Apollo 1 ONC impression. So shown here are two types of Marsar's replica Apollo 1 ONC rubber stamps he applied to my covers.

I'm sure many of us wondered where Marsar acquired the replica Apollo 1 rubber stamp ONC device and what has happened to it? As I remember there was some controversy among the Space Unit members over the implications and possible consequences of providing an impression to covers of such a rare and valuable ONC.

An authentic Apollo 1 ONC recently sold on eBay for around $2,800 of which only 40 are thought to exist. Since 1977, I have never seen any of the black Apollo 1 replica ONCs surface anywhere or any comments about them.

posted 04-17-2022 05:54 PM               

I can't recall seeing or knowing too much about Ray DuBeau's replica Apollo 1 rubber stamps. All throughout the 70's I had been servicing and cancelling a lot of Ray's covers for space events here in Florida, but I don't know (or I just can't recall) why Ray never offered me the cachet service for Apollo 1's ten year anniversary tragedy. Perhaps Tom can illustrate one of them for us here?

posted 04-17-2022 09:29 PM               

I found out about the sale of these after they were sold. I do know, after contacting the person handling the DuBeau estate about these, he said he had sold many DuBeau RS privately and did not keep any record of what they were.