Morris W. Beck US Navy Covers
 First cover in the 1000 Navy Series. 1962 |
 Special "S" cover USS Enterprise |
 USS Hornet-Neil Armstrong-Lunar Landing |
 USS New Orleans Recovery for Skylab |
 Apollo Soyuz on Popular Air Mail Envelope |
 Last cover in Navy Series USS Vinson. 1975 |
Reference Catalog
and Checklist for Collectors
Compiled and Managed by
Owen R. Murray,
A member of the USCS #5676, and ATA Space Unit #4500
This Web site has over 2,000 scans of Beck Navy
and Event Covers with Reference
Text.
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.
Home
Morris W. Beck Cover Basics
About this Web Site
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Numbered Series>
About the Series
1-50
51-99
S,100-150
151-200
201-250
251-299
300-350
351-402
403-455
456-514
515-569
570-621
622-687
688-769
770-841
842-899
900-951
952-1000
REVISED> MW
Beck Space Cachet Designs
#6 USS Dace Overprint
UPDATE>
#220 USS Lowry
Beck 929 Hawkins
GTA-8 USS Boxer
Cover Varieties and Oddities
Beck's Messages
1943-1970's Events
Nuclear Ships
Foreign
President Series
States Series
First Day Covers
Articles:
Apollo PRS Postmarked in Hawaii
ASTP USS New Orleans
July 25, 1975 onboard Cover
Beck Printing Log for Numbered Series
Updated Checklist June 2008
Astronaut
Autographs Download Checklists
Join the USCS
Email Mailing List
Other
Collector Links
Copyright ©2003-2008 Owen R Murray. All Rights Reserved. Revised:
Tuesday July 22, 2008.
A Resource for Collectors of Morris W. Beck Philatelic Covers. (About this site)
Latest Updates:
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The scan at right of a Beck FDC was sold on eBay in July 2008 for $36.00. It is signed by Ed Gibson of Skylab 4. Scan courtesy of RJIPhilatelics. |
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Morris W Beck Skylab Recovery Covers 896 and
897 with scarce postmark for this event. New additions to our Web site June 2008. Scans courtesy of Dr. Ross J. Smith, from his collection. We heard these covers might exist but have never observed them with Beck numbered printed cachets. We have seen the solid bar cancellation on CREW covers but not on cachets with the Beck number. We do know that most cancels for this flight were applied in Hawaii. Most cancels applied were the wavy line cancel. VERY few covers have the USS New Orleans cancel with the solid lines. It is not known if the solid line cancels were applied in Hawaii or actually on board the ship. It is likely that the solid line cancel WAS on board the ship. In
any case, the SOLID line cancel is the cancel seldom seen. Please note that
these two covers did not make it into the updated Beck cover checklist
published June 4, 2008, but will be added soon. |
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38 page Beck 1000 cover series checklist updated June 4,
2008. A new PDF is available HERE. This
is a FREE checklist for your personal use. Please send us additions or
corrections. |
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Morris W Beck cover from the 1000 cover series, number 762
from Apollo 7 recovery task force. This particular cover is special
because it does NOT have the usual corner card seen on the USNS Vanguard covers.
This cover has the same Jacksonville machine cancel as the others, it just
doesn't have the rubber stamped corner card. Scan courtesy of "RJIPhilatelics",
a seller on eBay. Click on the cover at left to see more covers from Apollo 7. |
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Good example of the postmark from the 1946 Navy Day cover from USS Bristol. Scan courtesy of Rich of "Nalwife", a seller on eBay. |
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The Mystery of the Apollo 16 USS Ticonderoga Beck number 880 CREW covers may be partially answered. For years, we have kept our eyes out for an example or scan of this cover. It is one of the few covers that we couldn't find but believed it had to exist. Don Hensley a non-collector found our Web site while researching his covers. He wrote us saying that his uncle was a postal clerk on the Ticonderoga during the Apollo 16 flight and was on board during the recovery. His uncle, now deceased, apparently got a hold of most or all the CREW (printed cachets without the usual Beck number) covers that Beck sent for this event. Don sent us scans of over a dozen different CREW covers from the Ticonderoga with the HAND CANCEL. Remember that the hand cancel was used in Hawaii and the machine cancel was left on the ship for crew use. We don't know any additional details about how these CREW covers were serviced. They all appear to be unaddressed. It makes us wonder if the postal clerk actually serviced these covers on the ship that day. If that is the case, then Hawaii wasn't the only place the hand cancel was used that day! If you have any more details you can add to this subject please email us |
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Long-time collector and space enthusiast, Dr.
Ross J. Smith sent us a scan of another very elusive CREW cover that
we've been looking for. Prior to seeing this scan, it wasn't
verified that a CREW cover existed for this ship for Apollo 14.
As Dr. Smith said, it might not be a pretty cover but I am VERY
happy to have found it. Beck 861 CREW
If you have any BECK covers not shown on this Web
site PLEASE
email us a scan! |
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New Unlisted Beck (B317) covers from the
Cooper manned space recovery.
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This CREW cover was postmarked on Jan. 31, 1971 the
launch date of Apollo 14 at Kenndey Space Center.
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Scans courtesy of Dan Duffy. Examples of the "VIP label" seen on many CREW covers sent to VIPs during the space program. Click HERE (B784) and HERE (B733) to see more information. |
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Unique and unofficial FDC Click HERE Sold on eBay April 2007.
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 Above: error-missing color  Above: Correct version |
B874 Missing Black Color.
Also see Here
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Apollo 11 B807 CREW USS New
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Naval Cover Museum
The Naval Cover Museum was established
in 2000 and is a non-profit organization
devoted to Naval Cover and Naval Postal History.
It is a virtual museum on the Internet with scans and information for
collectors.
Contact David Kent (navypmks-AT-aol-dot-com)for more information.
Sampling of Some Site Additions:
Apollo 16 CREW
1946 Navy Day Apollo 16 Moon PA
Previously unlisted Beck 317 covers
Moon
Beck 751
Rare B707 Brown/Gold B525
Unofficial FDC
Early Prototype 1947
1963 Chng/Command Unusual Beck ID
July 4 1962 1946 Destroyer Reverse
1944 addressed to Beck/reverse
USS New Orleans
USS Spokane Brown Envelope CREW
Apollo 11 Neil Armstrong CREW KSC AP 14
CREW Apollo 11
Rare Day After
Apollo 11 CREW Cachet on Back
CREW
CREW Beck Handmade
1946
B581 CREW B332
Oddity 1946 Frank Knox GT-8 Boxer CREW
GT-8 Boxer CREW GT-11-GT-12 Date Foreign Covers
USS Wisconsin 46 USS Columbus
46 Early Beck 1944 GT-12 CREW
Apollo 16 CREW GT-3 CREW
GT-4 CREW
GT-9 Cancel Variety GTA-6 CREW
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.
