Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3770
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 02-02-2024 05:14 PM
   
Here is something a little bit different or unusual that I recently came across. The three covers depicted came from Bill Ronson and by fellow space cover producer and dealer Clyde Sarzin of Port Washington, Long Island, New York.When I first got interested in collecting space covers as a young teenager, I wrote to both Bill and Clyde expressing my interest in space exploration and in trying to get some of my first space covers.  Ronson replied and mailed me this oversized graphic designed cover seen at left (size just over 5 by 10 inches) at no charge. It has a cancel from Bedford, Ohio, on the splashdown date of Apollo 13 on April 17, 1970. On the backside flap of the large cover it reads as shown, "Five Envelopes Printed & Cancelled, 3 of 5, NO. 13 (Unlucky) — Most Dangerous Apollo Flight —" along with two more text lines. Apparently the cover was designed by T. Ramsay in 1970. I have no idea of whom this designer is nor why it was posted in Ohio (perhaps in the city of which Ramsay was from). Not a big deal or anything, but an odd and/or strange-looking cover design. That early contact with Ronson, (and Sarzin, Carl Swanson, Ray DuBeau, and even Charles Riser with helping him on his Signatures newsletters, along with a few others) got me more interested in possibly becoming a space cover servicer for the Florida Space Coast area during my high school and college years. That early "career" in handling space cancelled covers from all across the globe continues on today in some areas. It wasn't until 1973 and 1975 that my first rubber stamps and printed cachets were produced on a regular basis. The other two oversized Apollo 15 and 17 covers were from Sarzin around that same time period (early 1970's). His "Silver Rocket Cover" for Apollo 17 is quite colorful with an interesting cachet artwork with a printed address of "UNIPHIL, c/o C. Sarzin, Port Washington, L.I., New York." On the back surface of the cover is No. 0899, but nothing else is known about it and the Apollo 15 space decade achievement first day cover that had been printed on a large mailing envelope. |
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