Morris W. Beck US Navy Covers
 #1 First cover in the 1000 Navy Series. 1962 USS T Jefferson |
 Special "S" cover USS Enterprise |
 Mercury Flight of Gordon Cooper |
 USS Hornet-Neil Armstrong-Lunar Landing 1969 |
 Apollo 15 Prime Recovery Ship |
 USS New Orleans VERY rare July 25 cancel for ASTP |
 Apollo Soyuz on Air Mail Envelope |
 #1000 Last cover in Navy Series USS Vinson. 1975 |
Reference Catalog, Checklist and
BLOG for Cover Collectors
Compiled and Managed by
Owen R. Murray,
A member of the USCS #5676, and ATA Space Unit #4500
This Web site has over 2,500 scans of Beck Navy
and Event Covers with Reference
Text.
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About the Series
1-50
51-99
MA-8
S,100-150
151-200
201-250
251-299
300-350
MA-9
351-402
403-455
456-514
GT-2
515-569
GT-3, GT-4, GT-5
570-621
GTA-6 GT-7
622-687
AS-201, GTA-8,
GTA-9, GTA-10, AP-3, GTA-11
688-769
AS-202, GTA-12, AS-204,
AS-501, AS-502, AP-7
770-841
AP-8, AP-9, AP-10, AP-11, AP-12, AP-13, AP-14
842-899
AP-14, AP-15, AP-16, AP-17, SL-II, SL-III, SL-IV
900-951
952-1000
ASTP
Articles and Resources:
NEW Small Rubber Stamps on Space Covers
Apollo PRS Postmarked in Hawaii
ASTP USS New Orleans
July 25, 1975 onboard Cover
How postage rates affected collecting Beck Printing Log for Numbered Series
Updated Checklist Nov 2010
GTA-8 USS Boxer Quantities
Download Checklists
Join the Space Unit
Join the USCS Other
Collector Links
Copyright ©2003-2012 Owen R Murray. All Rights Reserved. Revised:
Thursday January 19, 2012.
A Resource and Blog for Collectors of
Morris W. Beck Philatelic Covers.
Owen R. Murray
About
this site
Latest BLOG Update: January 19, 2012 Also see Owen's Photos Site
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Morris W. Beck Naval Covers Checklists Compiled by Owen R. Murray Updated January 19, 2012 Many new covers have been added to the checklist. Checklists are PDF files that require the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader (click to get Acrobat). Click below to view checklists inside your browser or use the right mouse click "Save Target As" feature to save the PDF to your local hard drive. Beck 1-1000 Numbered Checklist 1962-1975 1/19/2012 Beck Unnumbered Covers Checklist 1943-76 1/19/2012 Beck Nuclear Covers 1962-64 1/19/2012 Beck Foreign Covers 1/19/2012 Beck US Presidents Birth Series 1/19/2012 Beck US Presidents Death Series 1/19/2012 Beck States Series of 1951-2 1/19/2012 Beck States Series of 1956-7 1/19/2012 Beck/TriColor FDCs 1/19/2012 Please send corrections and additions to Owen R. Murray
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 This B515 CREW cover sold for GT3 Sold on eBay $90
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Who is W R Skelley, Jr? Readers
Share Thoughts Over the past several years, we have seen many Beck CREW covers addressed to W R Skelley, Jr. We assumed he was a PIO or PO during the Gemini space recoveries. He managed to get a hold of a lot of the Beck CREW covers and addressed them to himself. One is shown at left. Tom Steiner, Dr Ross Smith and David Ball discussed this topic and we have determined that Mr Skelley was indeed a PO and Chief Navy Yeoman. This means he likely had access to some of the covers sent to the US Navy for the recovery ships by Mr. Beck. UPDATE: See the article just published by Dr Ross Smith. |
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 Scan courtesy of Tom Steiner |
Beck Printing Error for Skylab III This interesting Beck cover is missing a color. Note that the B896 number would have been printed in the missing RED color. Click HERE to see correctly printed cachet and view B896 listing.
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"Wild" Bidding for Skylab III CREW This Beck CREW cover sold on eBay this week for an amazing price of $135.50 after 13 bids. The envelope stuffer card was what made this cover so desirable. We have never seen this stuffer card produced by Mr. Beck. We have no idea how many he made of this item or any similar covers. It is just a very interesting collectible and it fetched a nice price.
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  Scan shows small rubber stamp applied by Mr. Beck or a dealer after the space flight. Note the size of the small rubber stamp in relationship to the cancellation.
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UPDATED January 8, 2012 Beck Applied the Round Space Rubber Stamp After Space Flights to Any Cover Sent to Him by Collectors...Beck also sold the Rubber Stamps to collectors or dealers. See Ad at left. Note the small maroon, red or blue rubber stamp that was applied to collector's envelopes after the space flight was over. Collectors wishing to have this rubber stamp applied to covers, sent their covers with SASE to Mr. Beck. Mr. Beck applied the rubber stamp and returned the covers to the collectors using their SASE. Mr. Beck offered this service to all space collectors who wanted it applied to their covers. Beck would apply the rubber stamp to other cachet maker's envelopes if the collector sent him the cover after the flight. Because the small rubber stamps contain specific flight details we know that these small rubber stamps were applied after the space flight and not before by Mr. Beck. Mr. Beck started selling the rubber stamps with GT-3. We don't think Mr. Beck kept any records of how many covers he applied this small rubber stamp to, but it must be a small number for each flight. We also now know that Mr. Beck sold the small rubber stamps to some collectors and dealers that wanted to apply the design to their own covers. We are aware of at least one dealer still owning the rubber stamps. That means that there are many covers with this added design and that not all were applied by Mr. Beck. NEW Small Rubber Stamps on Space Covers
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| Updated information and listings on our Collector's Resource page Click HERE |
Happy New Year 2012 You may have noticed that we have been recording prices realized on eBay for Beck covers since about 2008. We just finished entering several thousand prices on the numbered cover listings. The eBay selling price is now listed for 2008-2011 when known. Click on any of the listings for Beck Numbered covers 1-1000.
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 Scan Courtesy of Greg Ciesielski/Rich Nallenweg |
Beck Cachet Printed on
European Size Env This is the first Beck cachet we have seen printed on the larger European sized envelope, referred to as C6 size. The C6 envelope size is the standard in Europe for most collector's covers while the 6 3/4 size envelope is common in North America. For more information on envelopes used in Europe please click HERE
This cover is on sale on eBay, check it out click HERE
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Project Gemini GTA-10
PRS sells for $26.50 This PRS Beck cover was spotted on eBay. It is great to see that important covers like this one are holding their value for collectors.
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Previously Unlisted 1947
USS Purdy This previously unlisted cover was spotted on eBay.
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 Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross J Smith |
Perhaps The "purchase"
of Year! This previously unlisted/unknown CREW cover (B319) for Gordon's Mercury flight was bought on eBay. Dr. Smith "snagged" this cover for only $25. It was likely overlooked by many other Beck collectors that would have paid two or three times that amount. Note that the address on the cover is Mr. Beck's home address at that time.
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 B584 CREW Wasp PRS  B608 Wasp PRS Scans courtesy of Timothy Preston
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Two Elusive Gemini Beck
PRS Covers The scans at left were sent to us by Timothy Preston. He found these two very elusive covers in a lot of covers purchased this year. Take a look at the cover listings for these covers to view a similar looking cover of each. Up until now, we had only seen one example of each. Thanks Tim.
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Early Gemini Beck B543 This cover was sold on eBay for about $10. It has the autograph of the CO. A very nice cover.
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  Scans courtesy of Dr. Ross J Smith |
Unlisted Beck 881 Apollo
16 Sold on eBay Dr. Ross J Smith reports purchasing a previously unlisted Beck 881 Apollo 16 cover postmarked on USS Constellation CVA-64 on April 26, 1972. The cover sold on eBay for $36. The cover is addressed to the well-known cover dealer-collector Harry Gordon.
Also shown is a very nice Apollo 10 Beck 797 cover postmarked on USS Rich on a popular airmail envelope. Some collectors specialize in airmail envelopes. |
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 Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross J Smith |
ASTP Dated
Cover-Probably a Beck Fake Dr. Ross J Smith reports purchasing a lot of 8 space covers. One of the covers in the lot is very interesting and probably has a FAKE Beck GT-3 cachet. The color of the cachet is less vivid than other GT-3 seen. Also the capsule and overall cachet is larger than the genuine version. The cover was postmarked in Norfolk for ASTP in July 1975. Possible explanations might be: 1) We know
that many ASTP covers were postmarked and returned to collectors
without a cachet. The Navy enforced the 2 covers per collector
rule. So perhaps this collector printed his own cachet!
OR 2) Dr Smith reports that the postmark like wavy lines appear to
be on top of the cachet, so it is probably a contemporary fake and
not a modern addition. |
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  Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross J Smith |
Interesting Gemini 10
Crew Covers These seldom seen Crew Covers for Gemini 10 also have an added rubber stamp cachet. The lower cover has the Beck designed rubber stamp as applied by the US Navy. Just to be clear, the blue cachet for these covers was printed on the ship for general purposes. The black rubber stamps were added for Gemini 10.
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 Scan courtesy of Charlie Hamilton |
Unlisted 1946 Beck Navy
Day Cover Found Charlie Hamilton found this previously unlisted Beck cover. Very nice example. There are over a dozen different Beck covers commemorating Navy Day 1946. See more HERE
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Beck B999 with
Interesting POB Number The cover shown here was sold on eBay for $6.50. The interesting thing is the address on the envelope. If any reader knows the story behind that address please let us know.
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 Scan courtesy of nalwife on eBay |
1946 Beck Navy Day Cover
bids to over $25 Bidding for a 1946 Morris W Beck cover postmarked on USS Douglas H Fox with a Navy Day 1946 cachet reached over $25 on eBay. Someone really wanted this cover! Typically, we haven't seen much bidding going on during the hot summer months.
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Cancel Error on USS Wasp
the PRS for GTA-9 Check the cancels of the USS Wasp GTA-9 covers in your collection to see if you have one of the "RARE" cancel variety versions. The variety is the upside down 1966 in the cancel slug. The scans at left show the only 3 covers we have observed. It is interesting to note that one cover has the US Navy rubber stamp cachet and the other two have the printed MW Beck cachets he assigned to the Wasp, B651, B657. There must be similar covers out there in collections but they haven't surfaced yet. If you have one, please send us a scan. The rubber stamp cachet with the cancel variety/error recently sold for $61 at auction. The Beck printed cachets should sell for more and we estimate that they would sell for $75-100 each depending upon the situation. You might run across the cover with the cancel variety at a local stamp show but you are more likely to see the cover on eBay. Depending upon how many collectors notice the cover the price would easily sell in the range stated above. Good Luck. Thanks goes to Dr. Ross Smith, Steve Durst and Eddie Bizub for providing scans of this issue.
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 Scan courtesy of Steve Durst |
USS Boxer LPH-4 Covers
for GTA-8 The cover shown at left is a new addition to our site. Based on correspondence between collectors, we have edited our special page on the GTA-8 covers. See the Boxer covers page here Thanks go to Dr Ross J Smith, Steve Durst, Randy Constantin, Dennis Dillman, Ray Cartier and Tom Steiner. |
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 Scan courtesy of PETESTAMPS on eBay |
1975 ASTP Cover Carried
by UDT Sold on eBay The cover shown at left is from the 1975 Apollo/Soyuz space mission. The cachet is the M W Beck designed rubber stamp and postmarked in SFO on July 24th. All that is not remarkable. What is unique with this cover is that it was actually carried by the UDT during the recovery mission. Sold on eBay June 5 for $22.50 by PETESTAMPS He reports that Dr Ramkissoon's name in pencil is at the bottom of the envelope but is almost completely erased. This cover is similar but not the same cover
as shown in the Beck 952-1000 cover listing under B998.
SEE HERE |
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Previously Unlisted 1947 Beck
Added to Site This 1947 Morris W Beck US Naval cover sold on eBay for $9.99 and was added to our site and Beck cover listings. |
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 June 2011 Scan courtesy of Ross Smith
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Beck B317 Story
Continues Morris W Beck's multicolored cachet number B317 for Gordon Cooper's MA-9 space flight was designated for USS Fletcher, one of the many US Navy ships of the MA-9 recovery force. Mr. Beck sent the printed (cacheted) envelopes to the US Navy to distribute to the ships that he designated. We know that when the envelopes reached the US Navy there was usually a different (non-standard) or even random distribution to the ships of the recovery force. That explains why we see Beck covers postmarked on different ships for the same cachet design, B317 in this case.
See the cover listing for more details on the story of B317 covers.
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 Beck USS Ozark CREW cover for Apollo 10 |
Beck CREW cover for B791
Sold on eBay Morris W Beck printed cachet for Apollo 10, B791, without the cachet number makes it a CREW cover. This cover from the USS Ozark sold for $32.00 on eBay.
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 Scan courtesy of Eddie Bizub from the collection of the late Richard Learn. |
First Scan of Mercury
B331 Cover
With May 15 Date Eddie Bizub sent us this scan of B331 USS Gainard from his stock and identified it as being from the collection of the late Richard Learn. This is the only B331 from the USS Gainard we have seen with the 15 May date. The 16 May date is the date seen most of the time. Update: This cover was sold and found a welcome home in a nice collection!
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 Scan courtesy of Toni Rigo. GT-2 USS Champlain cover with AM cancel.
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Very Elusive GT Cover
With RS Cachet Toni Rigo reports a very hard to find USS Champlain cover for GT-2 with the 19 Jan 1965 AM cancel. The cover shown here has the US Navy rubber stamp (RS) cachet. The rubber stamp applied to covers by the US Navy was designed and supplied by Morris W Beck. Mr. Beck used a similar design for his multicolor printed cachets as part of his numbered series. We have not seen a Beck printed cover with the AM cancel. The PM cancel is seen on Beck printed covers from USS Champlain. Beck numbers B456, B461 and B463. Toni Rigo researched the covers available for GT-2 and provides an excellent summary of the various USS Champlain covers for GT-2 US Navy Rubber Stamp Cachet 1) 19 Jan 1965 HC PM Black cachet (the most difficult) 2) 19 Jan 1965 HC PM Red cachet 3) 19 Jan 1965 HC PM Purple cachet (the most predominant) Morris W Beck printed cachet 4) 19 Jan 1965 HC PM Beck B456 (scheduled for USS Holder) 5) 19 Jan 1965 HC PM Beck B461 (Shown at Bottom LEFT) 6) 19 Jan 1965 HC PM Beck B463 Unnumbered Beck printed cachet (or crew cover) 7) 19 Jan 1965 HC PM US Navy Rubber Stamp Cachet 8) 19 Jan 1965 HC AM (Shown at TOP LEFT) Navy Rubber Stamp Cachet 9) 19 Jan 1965 MC PM. (MC=Machine Cancel)
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 Scan from eBay |
Unlisted Beck Mercury
CREW Cover Found This great CREW cover was recently sold on eBay for about $105. Beck's numbered cachet for USS Taussig is B324. This is the first CREW cover we have seen from USS Taussig for this space mission. See other covers from this mission HERE. This cover is a CREW cover because it does not have the "B324" printed on it. Beck sent 25+ printed envelopes without the "B" number for each ship in the space recovery task force. The US Navy made the actual distribution of the covers. That is why we see such differences in the use of the covers from flight to flight and ship to ship.
WHAT IS A CREW COVER? Click HERE
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  Scans Courtesy of Kimberly M., the daughter of Lt. R. J. Barrett, a Helo Pilot for a Swim Team during splashdown of Apollo 11.
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"Letter From Daddy"
Apollo 11 Helo Pilot Lt. Richard J. Barrett, the pilot of the helicopter for the Swim Team for Apollo 11 astronaut recovery, knew how important the event was he participated in. He was on duty in the Pacific for the Mission to the Moon while his family was home in California. Lt. Barrett wrote this wonderful letter to his two month old baby daughter so she would know that he was part of history.
Thanks goes to his daughter, Kimberly for letting us include her personal letter on our site. Click on the letter to view it for better reading.
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 Scan courtesy of Richard Hoffner Tri Color Generic Cachet used for 1960 Ryukyu FDC |
Beck Tri Color FDC
Example Richard Hoffner, the past VP of the USCS, sent us this great scan of a Morris W Beck First Day of Issue Cachet. From 1952 and until the mid 1960's Mr. Beck produced FDC cachets under his own name and the Tri Color brand. This cover sold on eBay after 4 bids for $7.50. If you are not a member of the USCS, please consider becoming a member. Dues are reasonable and the Monthly Log publication is a wealth of information on Naval and Space covers. See more below |
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 Join the USCS and enjoy collecting covers from Naval ships. Most of Beck's covers were Naval covers. |
Universal Ship Cancellation Society Click
THIS Link for the membership form. Today the non-profit USCS has over 1,200 worldwide members and offer many resources for collectors. The monthly USCS LOG publication (included with membership) is packed with information about naval covers, ships, how to order postcards, history, and addresses of ships to send for your own postmarks from US Navy ships. SEE MORE |
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 The Space Unit specializes in the topic of Space. Beck's most popular covers are the covers produced for the US Manned space flights. The publication contains information about space covers that you will not find anywhere else. Join today! |
Here is another collector's group
that I highly recommend The Space Unit is a non-profit organization of hobbyists devoted to the collection and study of covers and stamps issued on space themes. It has a world wide membership and is the largest independent astrophilatelic society in the world. Members receive 6 magazines each year and members only auctions of space related covers and stamps. Click
THIS Link for the membership form.
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  USS LSM 496. Landing Ship Medium. Scans courtesy of Richard Hoffner |
WWII Morris W Beck Sailor's Mail
Richard Hoffner sent us the scan of a cover Mr. Beck sent home while in the Navy. Also shown is the US Navy ship Beck served on. USS LSM 496. The LSM was a Landing Ship Medium were amphibious assault ships during WWII. If you have any samples of Mr. Beck's sailor's mail, please send us a scan. |
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Beck 953 Cover Sold for
$23 on
eBay The Beck cover for the First Day in Commission of the USS Spruance DD 963 sold for $23 on eBay. |
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 Scan from eBay. Beck CREW cover for GT3 B515 |
Beck CREW GT3 (B515) On
eBay 180Euros Dr Ross Smith brought this to our attention. A nice GT3 CREW cover (B515) is being offered on eBay for 180 Euros or about $250. That price seems high and it will be interesting to see if it sells for that. We know of one that sold for $90 in 2009. The handwriting on this cover is the same as one that we show in our listing for B515 CREW. A member of the crew was lucky enough to get a couple of the envelopes that Mr. Beck sent the US Navy. |
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Beck 1951-2 Statehood
Set Listed on eBay UPDATE March 13: This lot did not sell. Steve Henderson sent us information on a seldom seen offering of complete set of Beck's Statehood series from 1951-2. It is on eBay now at lot # 180635283710. Below is the lot's description from eBay.
See our listing of the Beck Statehood series HERE
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 1. B584 CREW With Hand Cancel Scan courtesy of Martin S Rasmussen |
Important Beck Covers
Now Listed Martin Schwebs Rasmussen, a regular reader of this blog and Beck Naval cover collector, sent us some scans of some very interesting Beck covers.
1. B584 USS Wasp CREW with a HAND Cancel. The first one we have seen. We have a scan and have observed at least two B584 CREW covers but those have the MACHINE cancel. This one is newly listed in our GTA-6 listing. |
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 2. B608 With Hand Cancel Scan courtesy of Martin S Rasmussen
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2. B608 USS Wasp HAND Cancel. This newly listed B608 with the hand cancel is the first one we have seen for B608 Wasp.
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 3. GT5 RS cachet on Front with Beck printed on reverse (B562) Scan courtesy of Martin S Rasmussen  3. B562 Reverse-Note the envelope flap Scan courtesy of Martin S Rasmussen
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3. The very interesting cover shown here has the
Beck cachet printed on the BACK of the cover.
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 4. B323 CREW Cover (No Beck number) Scan courtesy of Martin S Rasmussen |
4.
For this space mission, the ship's
rubber stamp cachet is usually found on the reverse of the covers.
Since this is a CREW cover, it probably wasn't mailed and didn't
need room for the address. Note the autograph of the
commanding officer. It was probably given to one of the senior
officers on the ship as a souvenir. This is a CREW Cover. (Beck printed cover with no number = CREW). This CREW cover is listed under B323 because Beck designated B323 for USS Kearsarge even though some USS Kearsarge covers have been seen with B317 cachet. Beck's printing log indicates that B323-was for USS Kearsarge |
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 Beck Rubber Stamp Cachet with Boxer Hand Cancel |
Beck Rubber Stamp Cachet
with Boxer Hand Cancel This cover has the Beck designed rubber stamp cachet that he supplied to the US Navy. This corresponds to Beck cachet number 622. All examples of the USS Boxer cancels on cachet 622 have the machine cancel. We have not observed any Boxer hand cancels on a printed Beck cover for this space flight. If you have one please send us a scan. The cover shown here sold on eBay for $30. 2/11 See the Beck printed cachet 622 HERE
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 B699 for normal postage usage |
Beck Cover B699-Norfolk
In eBay Lot Dr. Ross Smith noticed a Beck B699 in an eBay lot of covers. The cover (at left) is postmarked Norfolk, VA on December 8, 1966 and addressed to Germany. The date doesn't seem to be of any significance so perhaps the cover was just used for correspondence. If any readers have any more information on this cover, please contact us.
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 Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith B773 USS Guadalcanal  B760 USS Essex  Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith B751 USS Chikaskia  Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith B784 USS Guadalcanal |
Beck Covers Addressed to Sec. of Navy John H Dalton-Sec/Navy 1993-1998 At least four Beck covers were sold on eBay on Feb 12 from the collection of John H Dalton, Secretary of the Navy, 1993-98. Shown is B773 USS Guadalcanal with the A.M. cancel, a new addition to our web site. We suspected that it existed but have never seen one. The lucky bidder won this cover for only $30.
Note that all four of these Beck covers, sold by one eBay seller, are from the same collection of John H. Dalton the Secretary of the Navy, 1993-1998. All four covers have the "VIP" label that we have seen on some very hard to find covers. We believe that the covers with with VIP labels were sent to a special list of people and not to collectors. Industry, Navy, Contractors, Space and Government officials. In 1968-69, Dalton was serving in the Navy and received Navy Nuclear Power training. He served on USS Blueback SS-581 and USS J C Calhoun SSBN-630.
Beck B751 USS Chikaskia for AS 502. $32.00. This one is very hard to find.
Beck B784 USS Guadalcanal for AS 504 $24.39. This one is very hard to find.
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 Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith |
A Second Beck B525
Brown/Gold Cover Found
A B525 with the Brown/Gold cancel was found by
Dr Smith.
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1946 Beck USS Philippine
Sea CV-47 Added This new addition was observed on eBay with a starting bid price of $9.99
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 Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith |
Beck CREW Cover for GT-2
B461 Dr. Ross Smith sent us this scan of a great example of a CREW cover for GT-2 This CREW cover is listed under B461 because Beck's
printing log indicates that this number AND B463 were designated for USS Lake Champlain.
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 Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith |
Beck B653 USS
Wasp PRS Added Dr. Ross Smith sent us this scan of an important Prime Recovery Ship of Gemini 9. We have only seen a couple of the B653 postmarked on the Wasp. Also, watch for this cover with the Wasp Hand Cancel!
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1944 Beck WWII Dual
Cancel USS Hyman
Rich Hoffner sent us this scan of a very interesting WWII cover with
dual cancels. One from 1944 and then 1946. Rich reports
that the second cancel marks the ships arrival at Casco, Maine after
transiting the Panama Canal after WWII. The cover bears Mr.
Beck's hand written address and we know that Mr. Beck was in the
Navy so perhaps he knew someone or maybe he was on the Hyman at that
time. |
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 Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith |
Unlisted Beck B604 USS
Wasp PRS Found Dr. Ross Smith found this unlisted Beck cover for B604. A great find!
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 Scan courtesy of David Ball |
Beck B697 USS Robert A
Owens CREW Covers This CREW cover for the AS202 mission is already shown on this site, but what is interesting is that David Ball found these CREW covers both addressed to the well-known space cover dealer, Robert Boudwin. Since CREW covers are unusual to begin with, no doubt that Mr. Boudwin had connections to get two of these covers. Did he get them from Mr. Beck or from the Navy?
See more scans of this issue courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith
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 Scan courtesy of David Ball |
Beck B333 USS Beatty
CREW Cover Previously unlisted. We are very happy to have this scan sent us by David Ball.
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Apollo 13 Very Unusual CREW cover
This scan from CollectSpace.com Web site was brought to our attention by Dr Ross Smith. It is from the collection of Martin Schwebs Rasmussen. This is the only Apollo13 Beck cover seen from the Stoddert. Probably one-of-a-kind.
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 Scan courtesy of Martin Schwebs Rasmussen |
Beck Apollo 12 B824 USS
Hawkins CREW This previously unlisted Beck CREW cover was sold on eBay in November, 2010 for $16.50. This is the only CREW cover we have seen for the Hawkins for Apollo12 and we wondered if it existed.
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Beck Space Covers on
eBay
Top: December 2010. Sold on eBay. $41.00. Seller was gastampman.
Center: December 2010. Sold on eBay. $22.37. Seller was gastampman.
Bottom:December 2010. Sold on eBay. $45.64. Seller was gastampman. |
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 Scan courtesy of GAStampMan on eBay |
Beck B323 USS Kearsarge
PRS Autographed-Cooper This Beck cover, cachet B323, is postmarked on the prime recovery ship for Gordon Cooper's space mission on May 16, 1963. This autographed cover sold on eBay for $103.50 after 7 bids.
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Scan courtesy of PeteStamps on eBay |
Beck B998 July 25, 2010
Sells for $144.95 on eBay See the story of this and other ASTP covers in the listing section. |
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 Scan courtesy of Charlie Hamilton |
Beck Change of Command
Cover added to site. Thanks goes to Charlie Hamilton for sending us this scan of a previously unlisted cover on this Beck Cover site. See similar unnumbered Beck 1963 covers HERE
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Morris W. Beck Naval Covers Checklists Compiled by Owen R. Murray Updated November 26, 2010 Many new covers have been added to the checklist. Checklists are PDF files that require the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader (click to get Acrobat). Click below to view checklists inside your browser or use the right mouse click "Save Target As" feature to save the PDF to your local hard drive. Beck 1-1000 Numbered Checklist 1962-1975 11/26/10 Beck Unnumbered Covers Checklist 1943-76 11/26/10 Beck Nuclear Covers 1962-64 11/20/09 Beck Foreign Covers 11/20/09 Beck US Presidents Birth Series 11/20/09 Beck US Presidents Death Series 11/20/09 Beck States Series of 1951-2 11/20/09 Beck States Series of 1956-7 11/20/09 Beck/TriColor FDCs 11/20/09
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American Astrophilately.Com Check out the American Astrophilately site and David Ball's new book. Click on graphic at left to go to David's site. |
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 Most cancels are poor quality. Except for the covers shown below and right, all covers observed until 2010, also have a Boston MC July 31 on face of cover.
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M W Beck Cachet 47 USS Miller
Study Most recent addition to the site is the USS Miller cover shown directly below. This cover shows a full and clean cancel. Most Beck 47 covers also have the Boston MA machine cancel.
Another good example with a clear cancel plus note the cachet was printed over the address label. Scan courtesy of Rich Hoffner. |
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Very Unusual GT-9 PRS Sold for
$159.50 on eBay
The scans at left are the front and back of ONE cover. Perhaps unique. On the front is the GT-8 USS Boxer cover with the hard to find BLUE RS cachet for GT-8. On the back of the envelope is the printed captain's cover cachet for GT-9. Two different flights, two dates. Interesting. Thanks to Dr. Ross Smith for providing information for this posting.
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Beck 801 Apollo 11 Sold for $54
on eBay
A very nice example of Beck 801 USS Hornet Apollo 11 PRS sold on eBay for $54.
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Beck 630 Gemini 8 PRS Sold for
$255 on eBay!
This cover, the B630, USS Mason has always been an important PRS cover and the price has varied over the years. This sale at $255 is probably a record price or perhaps the highest paid in the past 5-8 years.
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Beck 699 CREW cover on Airmail
Envelope
Graeme J W Smith sent in the example of Beck 699 CREW
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Beck 723 FREE Mail
Rich Hoffner sent in this Beck 723 covers, a nice find in his "FREE" mail Viet Nam collection. Beck # 723, postmarked while ship in Vietnamese waters with Free franking privileges. Postal Clerk applied his rubber stamp to the cover.
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Beck 998 July 17 Sold on eBay
Ross Smith agrees that this cover is a Sean Marsar cover and is similar to the cover postmarked on July 15 on that same flight. According to Dr. Smith's research, only 10 covers were postmarked for each day with an extra 20 being postmarked on July 17, the day of docking. If you could assemble a complete set of the Beck and Navy RS cachets for this flight, it might be worth $1000. |
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Cover from Mr. Beck's collection Cachet designed by Donald O Schultz
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Beck CREW 515 GT-3 Another one
surfaces on eBay! I'm surprised to see another GT-3 CREW cover offered on eBay. It sold for only $32. We estimate that this CREW Prime Recovery Ship cover is probably really worth $100-125+
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Beck Covers and Interesting
Material I'm on the road for the next 6 weeks so my additions to this site will be quick and few! The Blue envelope at left is unusual and from the exhibit of Dr. Ramkissoon. The Betty Boop cachet is from Morris Beck's personal collection. He did not produce this cachet as far as we know. Other covers have been added in the Beck listing by individual covers. April 25, 2010
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 Above, Scan Courtesy of Tom Steiner
The cover below
from Dr Ross Smith, with the BLACK color missing is on our site.
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Beck #874 Apollo 15 Missing Green
Color USS Kawishiwi Courtesy of Tom Steiner, at left is a printed cachet color missing variety. Cover at bottom left is a B874 missing the black.
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 Scan Courtesy of Greg Ciesielski and Dave Kent |
Beck #47 LDPS USS Miller Found
Without MC Overprint Courtesy of Greg Ciesielski and Dave Kent, here is a Beck #47 scan that made us revise the caption on the webpage. "Most cancels are poor quality. All covers observed also have Boston MC July 31 on face of cover." This one is clean with no Boston MC . |
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  Bottom scan courtesy of Luc Jallot. This cover is interesting because it shows the same markings as another cover on our site. This seems to indicate that the changes to the Beck printed cachet were made by the ship's personnel and not a collector. If you have a B521 OR B522 Wasp without the changes shown above, please send us a scan.
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Ross Smith helped to identify the interesting markings on this GT-4 cover. He wrote "the small blue circular cachet was applied by Morris Beck. He applied it to any cover at his customers request and therefore it is not just found on recovery ship covers, but also on other covers such as launch covers. He used a number of different colored inks and I'm aware of examples from Gemini 2 to Apollo 4. I've documented these cachets on my Recovery Ship Cover site including those ink colors that I'm aware of. The JFK cachet is a George Goldey cachet and seems to be far less common on Recovery Ship covers than the Morris Beck cachet."
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Beck ASTP Rubber Stamp Postmarked
July 25, 1975 Remember that the post office on the USS New Orleans was closed on the actual ASTP recovery date of July 24, 1975. This cover is special because it is on a two-sided post card. See more similar covers from ASTP HERE
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Beck B746 AS 501 Recovery Ship
Cover Previously Unlisted
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 Scan courtesy of Tom Steiner |
Beck B896 Skylab Hawaii Cancel
Previously Unlisted
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Beck B613 Wasp Recovery Ship
Cover Previously Unlisted
Two similar B613 Wasp covers were offered on eBay. Successful bidder Dr. Ross Smith informed us of his find.
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Beck Printed Covers for Apollo 10
Missing Color
Ton Steiner sent us these scans of a missing background color on a Beck printed cover for Apollo 10. |
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 Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith |
Previously Unlisted Beck
CREW Cover Apollo 14
The Apollo 14 CREW cover at left was sold on eBay ($29.55). This is the first CREW cover we have seen from Apollo 14 cancelled on the Spiegel Grove, a secondary recovery ship for Apollo 14. With Dr. Smith's find, we only need tolocate the CREW cover for Apollo 14, USS Hawkins to have scans for CREW covers for all the recovery ships on that mission where Mr. Beck provided printed cachets. If you have a Hawkins CREW cover for this mission, please send us a scan.
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| Click HERE for FREE checklists |
Beck
Space Covers Checklist
We've had numerous requests for a checklist showing ONLY Beck space printed covers from the 1-1000 numbered series of 1962-1974. Click on link at left. Basically, this is the same checklist as the numbered series except it shows only the popular US Naval Space covers produced by Morris W Beck. Updated as of January 2010.
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Two Previously Unlisted Beck
Covers on eBay for Sale
There are two early Morris W Beck printed naval covers for sale on eBay right now. Our site did not list either of these covers until we saw them on eBay. Thanks to Rich of "nalwife". USS Missouri 1944, a VERY early Beck cover. He was still in high school. Very few produced. Missouri eBay Link HERE
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1973 Beck Printed Cachet for
USCS Convention
The latest addition to our site is this 1973 Morris W Beck printed cachet for the USCS convention. This was offered on eBay.
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Join the USCS and enjoy collecting covers from Naval ships. Most of Beck's covers were Naval covers. |
Universal Ship Cancellation Society Click
THIS Link for the membership form. Today the non-profit USCS has over 1,200 worldwide members and offer many resources for collectors. The monthly USCS LOG publication (included with membership) is packed with information about naval covers, ships, how to order postcards, history, and addresses of ships to send for your own postmarks from US Navy ships. SEE MORE |
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The Space Unit specializes in the topic of Space. Beck's most popular covers are the covers produced for the US Manned space flights. The publication contains information about space covers that you will not find anywhere else. Join today! |
Space Topic Study Unit of the ATA and APS The Space Unit is a non-profit organization of hobbyists devoted to the collection and study of covers and stamps issued on space themes. It has a world wide membership and is the largest independent astrophilatelic society in the world. Members receive 6 magazines each year and members only auctions of space related covers and stamps. Click
THIS Link for the membership form.
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CLICK HERE to see older articles... |
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Please note that the naval covers illustrated on this Web site are for
reference only.
This is a private Web site for the enjoyment of collectors of navy covers.
There are no paid ads or sponsorships on this site.
Also see Owen's
Photography Website for a monthly computer desktop calendar.
Owen's
photography is used on a new calendar each month since 2000.
Morris W. Beck Naval Covers for Collectors
Naval covers have been popular since about the time of Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet. A naval cover is an envelope or postcard postmarked on board a naval ship. The cover might commemorate a naval event such as a keel laying, launching or commissioning of a navy ship. Other covers are simply sailor’s mail that now has historical value for the postmark on the US Navy cover.
Collecting memorabilia from US Navy ships is a very interesting hobby and shares a piece of US Navy history. Some people collect pictures, ash trays, lighters, photos, launching or commissioning programs, US Navy patches, and envelopes or postcards postmarked aboard US Navy ships. Similar in appearance to a first day cover, a naval cover commemorates a US Navy event or simply be sailor’s mail sent home with a letter enclosed. In any case, these covers are very collectable.
Today, the Universal Ship Cancellation Society, USCS, in an international society where collectors of US Navy ship covers and postcards exchange information about their favorite collecting interests. See the link to the USCS. If you are not a member of the USCS, please consider joining.
Many collectors specialize in a special type of naval covers or envelopes. Some US Navy veterans have a special interest in the ships they served on. Ships like destroyers, aircraft carriers, submarines, battleship, etc. Some collectors of first day covers or FDCs also collect navy covers as a specialty.
The US NASA manned space program and the US Navy recovery ships are also very popular subjects for naval covers. The US Navy postmarks from the US Navy ships in the Atlantic or Pacific fleet that picked up the US space astronauts like John Glenn, Neil Armstrong or others are very popular. One of the most desirable modern naval covers is from the USS Hornet that picked up the astronauts, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins after the Moon landing Apollo 11 NASA mission. Dozens of US Navy ships participated in the US Space recovery program including, USS Hornet, USS Wasp, USS Intrepid, USS Lake Champlain, USS Guam, USS Mason, USS Randolph, USS Ticonderoga, USS Iwo Jima, USS Kearsarge, USS Okinawa, USS Essex, USS New Orleans, USS Guadalcanal, USS Bennington, and many others. All astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab programs were recovered by US Navy ships. There are covers for most of these events. The covers for the earliest manned space flights are among the hardest to find. Some of the most popular covers are for aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, battleships, and other types of US Navy ships.
Over the years there have been many individuals and groups produce some very attractive naval covers for US Navy events and space events including Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab manned space flights. Morris W. Beck was a collector of US Navy covers and started a service to provide other collectors with quality printed US Navy, space covers, and first day covers.
Beck served in the US Navy during World War II aboard a US Navy Destroyer. Morris W. Beck covers are well known among collectors. Beck produced a very popular series of 1000 US Navy event covers 1962-1975. Beck’s effort was a labor of love and his charge to service covers for collectors was only pennies per cover. This web site is dedicated to the US Navy event covers, president series, state series, nuclear ships and first day covers (FDC) produced by Morris W. Beck.
