Cover Types - Clarification Request On Terminology

I found some more details regarding the Colorano silk covers for the Mercury Project.

Apparently the 1971 Mercury Project colorano cachet was the first one that the Novaks produced on their own.

"Staehle subsequently designed a number of cachets for Ray. The first cachet the Novak's produced by themselves was for the Project Mercury stamp (Sc.1193) issued in 1962."

http://www.knottywood-treasures.com/id64.html

Now I'm confused about which one that is precisely. The 1971 version I have is not the Project Mercury stamp. And the one that does have a Project Mercury stamp is not an early colorano cachet. The gold trim is more like later versions.

Looking the price lists over again... I think they are both from 1971. One is an add on to the 1962 FDC, and the other one is a 1971 piece released as part of a set of coloranos.

Almost any Project Mercury cachet would have to be an add-on as the release of the stamp was a well-kept secret. [Then again, maybe the Post Office had prepared cacheted (sp?) covers for the release at Cape Canaveral. I doubt that, though.]

You know, I was thinking that as well... that any FDC caches that weren't add ons would probably be 'official' and produced by the post office. However, I found this article that suggests it may be that people were probably anticipating a stamp release, because of the importance of the mission. It has some interesting comments about the first day of issue. For instance, that because of the suprise many FDCs used cheaper envelopes that are toning sooner. The article is an older one, but interesting.

http://www.jamesmccusker.com/edu/article.cfm?id=51

Something else... due to the differences in time zones, you'd think that there would be fewer Eastern unofficial FDCs, than on the west coast, where the stamp was released 3 business hours earlier.

viking, all good points, but it seems a stretch that people prepared cachets for a First Day of Issue. (Then again, some people are prepared for the strangest things.) I would expect more first flight covers rather than FDOIs. Thank God none of the covers called for a black border.

What's the black border about? Is that supposed to indicate that someone died in the event?

viking, black borders are hardly ever used anymore. My apologies. My wry comments are so obscure that no one understands them.

But, yes, black borders used to be used for death announcements.

KGB - Ah, thanks. This discussion has been very informative for me.

I'm really starting to get interested in custom made covers at the moment as well. Both collecting covers made by others, and I might even be tempted to try my hand at some.

I just picked up that I can't wait to see in person.

I see the term 'commercial' mail being used. Can someone give me examples of what might be considered 'commercial' mail? Is it something like a phone bill mailed from the phone company? Or is there more to it than that?

itviking,

"Commercial" in this context refers to mail that is not "philatelically contrived," i.e., mail that was posted to the mail stream without philatelic purposes. FDC's are obvious philatelic creations (I do not care for the use of "contrived" but it is common in this context). Even in the early days of FDC's, when they went through the mail stream, they were distinguished from "ordinary" covers. What it boils down to is that there are some who think that only covers which were not created for some philatelic purpose are "real" covers worth collecting. I may have pointed it out in a previous post, but if you look at the subject matter of the U.S. "Covers" subforum here, you will find far more discussion about non-philatelic covers than you will FDC's or First Flight covers or various kinds of event covers. Some "purists" look down on those kinds of covers as "contrived."

If I haven't made it clear yet, "commercial" doesn't mean just something like a phone bill. If I dropped you a note posted by ordinary mail with a common forever stamp on it, that would be "commercial" mail as the term is being used in this context. It is a poor synonym for "postally used." Of course an FDC or other "contrived" cover could be sent through the mail stream, so it would be postally used also. I started a threat about an example of that here:

https://goscf.com/t/42422

Terms aside, it boils down to whether the cover was intended to be a philatelic collectible or not.

Basil

Excellent response, and perfectly clear. Thanks for taking the time to explain and elaborate so nicely.

There are some very interesting sub-group dynamics in play with collecting covers. So some people collect FDCs. Others collect 'historical' or 'event' covers. Then this other sub-section of 'purists' who collect only 'commercial' covers would even turn their noses up at some historical event covers, because they may have a contrived element. For instance... covers that were carried to the moon.

Actually, its hard to think that someone might turn their nose up at a cover that's actually been on the moon, but it would probably be a very rare example of an exception someone might make.

Personally, I can see value in all sorts of covers, and by 'value' I don't mean $$$ value. I like some FDCs. I love some event covers; particularly ones with some historical significance (first flight, etc). But I could also see the real value in something 'commercial' as well. Particularly since stamp collecting used to be such a rage in the 20th century, and was a vast source of funding for various ventures... so many of the covers designed to flown places or for special events were 'contrived'; which means much less of it was probably 'commercial'. Many collectors in the past didn't think that way, so they probably ignored day to day commercial covers in favor of contrived covers for their collections... so I imagine much of the commercial stuff was thrown out or had the stamps cut off for collecting purposes.

I think that the preference for "commercial" covers is strongest among those who collect stamps from the "Classic" period. With some exceptions (Civil War patriotic covers, for example), there was little interest in philatelic creations and "commercial" covers are sought to illustrate the use of classic stamps "in period." Moving into the 20th century, one of the biggest developments I think to broaden interest to philatelic creations was air mail, and the issuance of first flight covers. Illustrated or cacheted FDC's begin soon after the rise of air mail in the early 1920's. Event covers probably date back to the earliest "expos" but certainly picked up with the arrival of air mail.

Space covers are an interesting niche. Were any covers actually carried to the moon? Lots of event covers were issued to celebrate space "events" without actually ever going anywhere other than to a post office for a cancellation the date of the event. Maybe more "genuine" would be "rocket mail." There were some early experiments in carrying mail aboard rockets, but I don't know that this ever was anything more than experimental.

Philately is a "big tent." I see no reason to denigrate any niche or focus that one finds interesting.

Basil

Yes, in fact there was even a post office setup on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission. They held a first day of issue ceremony for the 1971 'space achievements' stamps on the moon and cancelled a FDC there.

You can watch it on YouTube.

Also, there was a controversy during the same mission because of the number of covers the astronauts carried with them to the moon. Some covers were authorized by NASA, but other were not, and were taken as part of deal the astronauts struck with German stamp dealer Herman E. Sieger.

http://www.spaceflownartifacts.com/..._covers.html


"Philately is a "big tent." I see no reason to denigrate any niche or focus that one finds interesting."

I agree completely.

Another great example is Zeppelin mail in the 1920's and 30's. Despite the fact that it was faster than boat across the Atlantic, they were a huge deal with stamp collectors, and thus a lot of the mail carried by Zeps was philatelic. The same German stamp dealer involved in the Apollo 15 controversy was largely personally responsible for the cataloging of Zep covers in the 30's.

Personally, I'm really interested in the Zeppelin covers. It's a great story, and an example of how philatelic items not only help preserve history, but help make it. A lot of venture capital was raised through philatelic interests.

itviking,

Thanks for the info about Apollo 15. Despite my topical interest in aerophilately, Zepp covers are probably not on my horizon. I do have the Zepp stamps as part of a complete collection of US airmails, and I've tried to acquire FDC's for as many of those stamps as possible, but FDC's for the Zepp stamps are a bit too rich for my budget (except maybe C18, but if I'm not going to get them all, I don't plan to get any). The Zepp flight covers, though, are within my budget, but I'm not as attracted to them as I am to other things at the moment. I'm finishing up an exhibit on General Hap Arnold, and because he was a major WW2 figure I've been collecting a lot of WW2 patriotic covers lately. All kinds of interesting tangents involved in that.

I'll do a separate exhibit on FDC's of the 65 cent Hap Arnold stamp, with a focus on how well -- or not -- cachets for the issue accurately reflect aspects of Arnold's life. One thing I've learned from that is that not all cachet producers do a very good job at that. They get facts wrong, or have design elements that have little or nothing to do with the subject of the stamp. Then again, some do a very good job. Like you, I think, I enjoy philatelic pursuits that meld well with historical investigation. That's probably true of most stamp collectors, to one degree or another.

Basil