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  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

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Morris W. Beck Naval Covers
 

Copyright ©1999-2024 Owen R Murray.  All Rights Reserved.      Revised: 03/01/2024

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.

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.

These are the first Beck cachets 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 PRS Beck cover was spotted on eBay.  It is great to see that important covers like this one are holding their value for collectors.

This previously unlisted cover was spotted on eBay.

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.

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.

See the listing HERE

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.

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.

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
 

This 1947 Morris W Beck US Naval cover  sold on eBay for $9.99 and was added to our site and Beck cover listings.

See the 1947 listing and photos here

June 2011 Scan courtesy of Ross Smith

2008 Scan courtesy of Paul Huber. Thought to be one of a kind until now.

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.

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.

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!

Dr. Ross Smith found this unlisted Beck cover for B604.  A great find!

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?

More on CREW covers.

See more scans of this issue courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith

Previously unlisted.  We are very happy to have this scan sent us by David Ball.

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.

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.

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.

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.

See the story of this and other ASTP covers in the listing section. 

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.

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.

Cachet designed by Donald O Schultz

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+

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

Scan courtesy of Greg Ciesielski

Above, Scan Courtesy of Tom Steiner

The cover below from Dr Ross Smith, with the BLACK color missing is on our site.
See that page HERE
 

Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith

Courtesy of Tom Steiner, at left is a printed cachet color missing variety. 

Cover at bottom left is a B874 missing the black.

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

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.

Shown here is a scan courtesy of Spaceflori of Beck 522 Wasp with the same changes as the above B521 to the cachet.

Scans courtesy of Luc Jallot.

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

See Listing HERE

See Listing HERE

Two similar B613 Wasp covers were offered on eBay.  Successful bidder Dr. Ross Smith informed us of his find.

Ton Steiner sent us these scans of a missing background color on a Beck printed cover for Apollo 10.

See more varieties HERE

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.