Posts: 312
From: Boston, Mass.
Registered: Jun 2005

Posts: 731
From: Upstate New York, USA
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-29-2016 11:15 AM               

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The Aldrins were not signed by Buzz Aldrin. They were signed by a NASA secretary/proxy signer.

The Armstrong is authentic.

Posts: 312
From: Boston, Mass.
Registered: Jun 2005

Posts: 396
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Jan 2012

posted 08-30-2016 06:48 AM               

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First of all, I'd like to say how jealous I am at Steve's ability to decipher autographs. If I had his talent, it would have saved me thousands.

This post brings up an interesting topic. I'm more than willing to be corrected on this, but I read somewhere, I believe it was in "First Man" that Neil Armstrong says he never ever signed a single cover, yet this and a few other examples, proves that he did. The reason I remember it is because I read the sentence several times just to make sure I was reading it correctly.

Did I read wrong, or did Neil forget that he signed some?

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 08-30-2016 09:11 AM               

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"First Man" states that by 1980, when Armstrong rented a small office and hired an assistant to handle his mail, he had already ceased signing covers.

For the first twelve to fifteen years, he would sign anything he was asked to sign, except a first day cover.

Armstrong stopped signing covers and most other philatelic items in 1970-71. Prior to that, he signed them just as he did any other autograph, including the Apollo 11 crew's insurance covers and the covers flown aboard the mission.

The cover in the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum collection dates to 1969.

Posts: 2914
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-30-2016 09:22 AM               

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Armstrong did in fact sign space covers up until about a year or so after his return from Apollo 11.

If you note his signature on the above depicted cover was originally an Apollo 11 first day "moon stamp" cover from Sept. 1969.

Even though the autograph on it is genuine, as Steve pointed out, it does fit within the time frame when the "first man" did in fact sign postal covers.

Aldrin and Collins stopped signing space covers and stamp/philatelic items a few years afterwards, I believe, both stopped after the 10th anniversary of man's first lunar landing mission as my memory recalls, but now I am thinking that Collins may have stopped a few years earlier (I'll recheck on that).

Posts: 2212
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008