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Beck Applied the Round
Space Rubber Stamp After Space Flights to Any Cover Sent to Him by Collectors
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  Scan shows small rubber stamp applied by Mr. Beck after the space flight. The cover illustrated here has the US Navy RS cachet Note the size of the small rubber stamp in relationship to the cancellation. Above: Scans courtesy of Charlie Hamilton
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Beck Applied the Round
Space Rubber Stamp After Space Flights to Any Cover Sent to Him by
Collectors...Beck also sold sets of the Rubber Stamps to a few
Dealers 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. More research needs to be done in this area but we think that Mr. Beck offered the rubber stamp starting 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 a set of the small rubber stamps to some 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. (updated Jan. 2012)
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