posted 07-22-2023 11:15 AM               

Space Cover 711: Robert Rank combo canceled covers

Any collector of space covers has more than a handful of Robert Rank Space Voyage covers in their collection. For this Space Cover of the Week post, I'm focusing on what I think is a very unique set of Rank covers. It's always been interesting to see cover producers put together combo cancelled covers and Rank created some really terrific ones going back to his "flocked velvet and silkscreen style" covers beginning with Project Mercury through his Space Shuttle era covers.

The following groups of covers each span a decade. I'll focus on the Apollo 11 covers (above) and then you can see how the Apollo 12 and Apollo 13 covers follow a similar format.

Rank cancelled each of the three covers in July of 1969 celebrating the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon.

One cover is cancelled July 16, 1969 on the date of the launch, the second on July 20, 1969 for the Moon landing, and the third cover July 24, 1969 the date of the return to Earth and splashdown of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Each cover was then cancelled ten years later on July 20, 1979 for the 10th anniversary of the Moon landing.

Someone may know the answer to this but I have wondered, did Rank look ahead ten years and set these uncacheted covers aside for something special like a dual cancel for the future? Or were these these "extra" covers left over from his covers produced in 1969 and then he realized a use for them later?

I believe it is the former because he then cancelled and set aside similar covers for Apollo 12 and Apollo 13.

This theory is bolstered by the cachet he designed combining imagery from the Apollo 11, Apollo 12 and Apollo 13 missions. The cachets all may have been printer following the Apollo 13 mission.

I am hoping cover specialist extraordinaire Ken Havekotte or someone else may know the answer! Either way each set is a wonderful tribute to these first three Apollo Moon landing missions.

posted 07-22-2023 03:23 PM               

I guessed that he planned for the multi-cancel covers.

This is based on single cancel Space Voyage cover cachets take up the whole front of the cover while these obviously had to have room for the second postmark.

Similarly, there are three cancel covers Rank made and the only only cachet is in the upper left hand corner.