Abstract
One of the philatelic ‘innovations’ introduced for the Apollo 11 mission was the concept of ‘Insurance Covers’, the pre-signed envelopes that the astronauts left with trusted individuals as a form of life insurance, which family members would be able to sell to collectors if something went wrong on the mission and the astronauts died. These are therefore unflown covers that, in the context of collectables, have a special meaning.
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Notes
- 1.
A first version of this chapter was published as “Apollo 11 Insurance covers ”, in Orbit no. 92 (January 2012), pp. 22–25, and as “The First Man on the Moon: the greatest philatelic success ever”, in Orbit no. 93 (March 2012), pp. 22–25.
- 2.
Such covers reached the market soon after the flight, with the exception of those held by the family of Neil Armstrong , who never sold them. The family did donate one of his covers to benefit the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation in 2014. It was one of the Type III ‘Mission Patch’ covers and can be seen at www.collectspace.com under “neil-armstrong-auction-scholarship”.
- 3.
A small draft of one of these cancels was reproduced in the book by Mike Collins.
- 4.
Known since the early 1950s as an illustrator of science fiction stories. Paul Calle showed a keen interest in space for almost 50 years. He was selected as one of the first eight artists in the NASA Arts Program in 1962, which was established with the purpose of recording space exploration for posterity through the eyes of artists.
- 5.
Neil Armstrong appears on more commemorative postage stamps than any other human in history, save for Yuri Gagarin. According to the American collector and itemizer Peter Hoffman, there had been 536 Armstrong stamps (and 605 Gagarin stamps) issued up to March 2018. (From personal communications with the author.)
References
Inside Story of the First Men on the Moon Stamps, George Amick, www.unicover.com
Communication from Walter Hopferwieser in April 2018; also, Matthew Radnofsky: il quarto astronauta dell’Apollo 11 (Matthew Radnofsky: the fourth Apollo 11 astronaut), Alberto Bolaffi, Il Collezionista # 6, 2009 pp. 8–17 [in Italian].
Carrying the Fire, Michael Collins, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 2009, p. 426.
Mail from the Moon, http://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/mail-from-the-moon/
One of these covers was publicly shown for the first time, on request of the author, on www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum20/HTML/001018.html in May 2018
The Pencil, Paul Calle, published by North Light Publishers, Westport, Conn, distributed by Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1974, p. 121.
Celebrating Apollo 11 – The Artwork of Paul Calle, Chris Calle, AeroGraphics Inc., Bradenton, Florida, 2009, p. 22.
Astrophile (journal of Space Unit – American Topical Association) #309, 2009, p. 134.
Reference 8, p. 131.
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Cavallaro, U. (2018). First Lunar Landing: The Philatelic Side of Apollo 11. In: The Race to the Moon Chronicled in Stamps, Postcards, and Postmarks. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92153-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92153-2_7
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