
This cover is thought to be Beck counterfeit

This cover is for comparison. It has the background
color
and note the position of the B787 number.
|
Apollo 10 PRS Cover Now
Believed to Be a Beck Counterfeit
Last week we posted a Beck Apollo 10 Prime Recovery Ship (PRS)
cover B787 on our Beck cover site. The cover was very interesting
because it was missing the green screened background color and
the “B787” was printed under the cachet on the Bottom LEFT
instead of the RIGHT.
The cover had the printed address of Hans J. Rautschke in Berlin.
The scan we posted came from a regular contributor to the Beck
site in Europe.
We had correspondence with a collector that suggested that
the scan of the B787 Apollo 10 cover we showed was a forgery
made by Rautschke. Evidently, Rautschke has been identified
as a dealer and counterfeiter of covers.
We have carefully reviewed 65 different actual Apollo 10 covers
that we have access to and can now state with a very high degree
of certainty that the cover in question is in fact a FAKE.
You should examine Beck Apollo 10 covers in your collection to
determine if you have any other fake covers.
The first thing to look for is the address on the cover.
If it is
Hans J. Rautschke in Berlin, it might be suspect.
Just because a cover is missing the screened background,
doesn’t mean it is fake so don’t be concerned with that.
If the B number is not in the correct location, look further.
EVERY one of the actual 65 Apollo 10 covers we looked at had
the same layout of the type “APOLLO 10” and the words “LUNAR
MODULE” below it. The “L” of Lunar lined up exactly the
same in the authentic covers, but is slightly shifted in the fake.
Then compare the very slight slant of the type “APOLLO 10” as
compared to the fake.
It is unfortunate that people create fake covers for profit.
Enjoy this hobby but be careful when you see something
that is too good to be true.
Thanks goes to A. Gutmann for his input and information
on this issue.
More
information HERE |

Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson |
USS Bainbridge Covers Posted
|
|
The Article About CREW Covers
Is Totally Revised
|



We have wondered for some time how it was
possible for W R Skelley to obtain so many important space flight
covers. Now it has become clear that he was the coordinator
for the US Navy and had access to and distributed covers to the
recovery ships. |
More Skelley/Beck Space Covers
eBay listed
several Beck space covers that hit high prices about $60-70
each. Great covers for a space or Beck collection.
More Information About W R Skelley, Jr

|
|
|

Beck placed the above ad in the Supplement to the USCS
Log publication in April 1967
  
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Scans cropped from covers shown above.
|
Beck One Inch Rubber Stamps
Section Updated
Beck first advertised these rubber stamps in a supplement to the
USCS Log in April 1967. Ad is shown at left.
The photo below is from an eBay
lot several years ago when
a set of TEN of the rubber stamps was for sale.
We have seen covers where there
are 13 different examples shown.
Gemini 3, 4, 5, 6, 6A, 7, 8, 9,
10, 11, 12, AS201, AS202
If you have any other examples of
other rubber stamps from
other flights, please send us a scan.
See the updated page HERE
 |
 |
At Left is Fairwinds Show
Schedule
Fairwinds, owned by Paul and
Becky Huber, is one of the finest
dealers selling Naval Covers. Visit them if you are attending
a show.
|

Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
New Addition To Our Beck FDC
Listing
In 1964, the USPS issued a postage stamp honoring John F
Kennedy. The cachet on the cover shown at left is the same
design Beck used on cachet number B412.
Larry Johnson found this great
FDC and sent us a scan for our
Beck site.
|

Scan courtesy of Andre Gutmann
|
New Addition to our Listing-Apollo
13 CREW-USS Kawishiwi
Andre Gutmann, located in Germany, sent us the scan shown at
left.
It is a Beck CREW cover.
We show one CREW cover in our
listings but it has the cachet
for the Atlantic recovery fleet,
USS Kawishiwi was actually part
of the Pacific recovery fleet.
See the listing for Apollo 13
HERE
See revised information on Beck
CREW covers HERE
|
|
eBay SOLD prices for
numbered series is updated for 2018
The sold prices are listed along with the scan and other details for
each cover on this site.
The checklist for Beck's numbered
series is now updated
and FREE to download
See the FREE/Downloadable
Checklists HERE
Long-time Collector of Beck
Covers, Larry Johnson, has
updated the Beck State series and the list of known Beck
First Day Covers. Also, Larry just created a new checklist
for Beck States on Post Cards.
A big thanks goes to Larry Johnson for his efforts.
|
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_small.jpg)

|
New Additions to our Listing
The 1951-52 and 1956-1957 MWBeck States series has
experienced a resurgence in collector interest over the
past year. A number of covers on eBay have sold for
prices rivaling many space covers. They seem to be in
short supply given the high demand. We suggest you
find them while you still can.
At Left, we show three examples
of the 1951-1952 series
printed on postcards instead of envelopes.
See more information HERE
Checklist HERE
The postcard shown directly
below was produced by MWBeck. Note his "logo" We don't
know how many different postcards he
produced.

Below is a new addition to
MWB0812 listing for the
commissioning of the USS Manitowoc.
This cover has the Philadelphia machine cancel
with the slogan ARMY ROTC.
We have also seen a slogan in
a cancel saying
"ALWAYS USE ZIP CODE"
More HERE
 |

|
Example of a B896 Skylab Cover
with the Red Missing
This cover is the second B896 (solid lines cancel) we have seen with the
missing red cachet color. This one sold for
$65.00 on eBay.
It is interesting to
note that both examples shown are
addressed to Germany.
There is another B896
with a WAVY cancel that is
missing the green cachet color.
See the listing
HERE
|
 
Cover courtesy of Art Cole
|
Example of a Cover From Beck's
Personal Collection
Morris Beck was a cover collector and Dealer. He served in the
US Navy after he graduated from high school in 1944.
The cover shown at
left was sent to us by Art Cole.
See other covers from
Mr. Beck's collection HERE
Art Cole has a
special interest in the N.S. Savannah Chapter #109 of the USCS.
They have a special page on FaceBook if you are interested. Check it
out.
Also, if you are
interested in joining the USCS, please check out uscs.org.
|
  
Scans courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith |
New Examples of the Round
Space Flight Rubber Stamps
Morris W. Beck produced a number of small one-inch
rubber stamps.
Note the small maroon, red, blue or black
rubber stamp that was applied to
collector's
envelopes
after the 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
small round rubber
stamp and returned the covers to the
collectors
using their SASE.
Not very many covers have
this added rubber stamp.
Mr. Beck applied the
rubber stamp to any covers the
collector sent in, not
just CREW covers.
Mr. Beck also sold sets of the rubber
stamps to dealers to the dealers
could apply and rubber stamp as they
desired.
SEE MORE INFORMATION HERE
|

Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
New Find-Beck 1951-2 States
(Territories) Virgin Islands Morris W. Beck
produced two different series of covers honoring the states and territories.
These covers were produced for collectors that sent in their envelopes.
It was a similar service to his other series such as Presidents and Naval
event covers. See the example scans from the
two state series. HERE
These covers are hard to find especially in a
complete set. Seldom seen Beck States cachet on postcard.
A complete set of the 1951-2 or 1956-7 series
sells for about $250-300 each and the full sets are rarely found.
|


Scans courtesy of Greg Ciesielski |
New Additions
Greg Ciesielski noticed the rubber stamp
applied to
the back of B8. The rubber stamp on back shows
"Number 1 of 82". The "1" and "82" are written by hand.
The "82" is the total number of covers Mr.
Beck printed.
We compared the handwriting to that of Mr. Beck and
determined that
Beck did not write these numbers.
You can see his handwriting of numbers on his
printing log shown on this site.
We examined 3 other examples of B8 and none of them
had the rubber stamp on the back of the cover.
|


This cover is a mystery because Beck's log
shows B867 as not sent. This is a possible
suspect or back dated cover.
The ship was commissioned October 30, 1971.
This is the only commissioning cover we have seen.

This is the only B904 we have seen with a postmark. We don't know if it is
genuine. Note the "74" in the date.

This is the only one we have seen for B857. We feel that the cover probably
isn't genuine.

This cover is addressed to Ronald Reeves who produced some counterfeit covers.
We are not sure about this one. Ron worked in Philadelphia so he might of had
this postmarked during the commissioning.
Please let us know if you have one like this.

New addition.
Added to Sailors Mail section of
MWB personal

New addition. Added to 1946 Page #3

Hand Cancel and Machine Cancel See
Listing
Scans courtesy of Charlie Hamilton |
New Additions
Charlie Hamilton sent us a
bunch of Beck covers

Scan submitted by Charlie Hamilton.
This cover is postmarked for the 1993 decommissioning.
Signed by the CO CMDR Steven J Sonntag

New addition. See 846 page

JUN 20 1970 AM
Autog CO CMDR James C Hayes
One observed with this date.

CREW B574
Correct Commissioning date is December 18, 1965.
Autog by CO CAPT Mark G Tremaine
Scan courtesy of Charlie Hamilton.

See page with B866

Thanks to Charlie Hamilton for this scan.
This is the first one we have seen for
B865 that was never serviced.
|

scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
Flag Day 1976
Here is another example of the Beck Flag Day
cover
Flag Day cachet similar to Beck
915 with 1976 date.
These covers were printed for
Martin Longseth a collector.
In 1976, Longseth sent this cover
to every ship with a post office (about 184 ships).
In 2014 a number of these covers with
different ship cancelations sold for about $10 each.
See more HERE
|

Scan courtesy of David Ball |
A Personal Cover From Mr
Beck's Collection
David Ball sent us a scan of a great cover from
Mr Beck's personal collection.
|
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Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
Unlisted Machine Cancel
Variety
Larry Johnson found a cancel variety. The
Launching of USS
Roanoke in San Diego, CA was commemorated by a
machine
cancel from the USPS.
It looks like more than one cancel machine was
used for this
event. |
_small.jpg)
Scan courtesy of Joseph Volutza
|
Beck Rubber Stamp on
Interesting Cover sent While On Ship
We normally don't list or show Beck's rubber
stamp
cachets but we thought this one was very interesting.
It
is a larger #10 envelope sent by the Associated
Press photographer
assigned to this flight. |

Scan courtesy of W. Magnus
|
Unlisted Machine Bar Cancel
Without Slug Added
W. Magnus sent us a scan shown at left of B762
with a Bar
Cancel without any date slug. We have
added it to our site.
|
 
Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson |
Beck Covers First Examples
Found B850 and B931
Larry Johnson sent us the two covers shown at the
left.
|


scans courtesy of Joe Volutza |
Background Fill Missing from Apollo
8 PRS Covers
Joe Volutza spotted these Apollo 8 Yorktown
covers missing the
background fill. We have seen other Beck printed covers with
the missing fill background but these are the first ones seen
from Apollo 8.


This cover (B771) shows the usual background fill
printed by Mr. Beck.
|
|
Possible Correction to Our Apollo
8 listing
In our listing of numbered covers on this site,
we have grouped the covers
first by the Beck number, then the ships name. For some
series of covers, Beck designated the Navy ship he intended
the covers to go to and marked the boxes that way when he sent them
in bulk to the US Navy for postmarking.
When it became too difficult to plan which cover
should go to a ship he just let the Navy make the distribution once
the Navy
coordinator received the bulk shipment of covers before a space
flight.
For the Apollo 8 flight, Beck probably didn't
have a firm list of
ships at the time he printed the covers.
After the flight was over, it was generally
recognized which
ship received the largest share of Beck covers for postmarking.
In our listings of Beck space covers on this site we generally
list which Beck cover number belonged to which ship. This was
based on what we understood to be the largest number of
covers returned for each number.
For all these years, we thought B773 was for USS
Sandoval.
We have now concluded that B773 was probably NOT
the
correct one for Sandoval.
There are 6 different ships postmarked on B773
covers,
Including the PRS.
I hope this makes sense. We have changed
our listing of B773
to indicate that we don't know which ship B773 was intended for.
Interesting to note that in March 2018 a lot of 4 covers with
several B773 sold for $102 showing that some of these
covers are very hard to find. One long time Beck collector
reports that he is still missing 3 B773 shown in our list.
You can see the Apollo listing
HERE
|
 |
New Addition: Norfolk Cover
With Bar Slug
The Skylab cover at left shows an interesting bar
slug to
strike the 3c Liberty stamp. Since these covers were not
cancelled aboard a US Navy ship, this slug must have been
applied by the USPS.
|
 
Scans courtesy Ross Smith
|
New Addition: Beck Space
Varieties
The B840 Apollo 13 cachet is cut off, probably in
the cachet printing process or a smaller envelope.
Note the shift in colors on this Wasp cachet.
It helps to clearly show the differences in the colors. |

Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
New Addition: Unlisted Change
of Command
Larry Johnson found this cover on eBay. It
is the earliest
use of this cachet we have seen.
Note that the cover has the autograph of the
CO and is personalized with the rank and name.
See the other similar covers
HERE. |
Beck States Series of 1951-2
January 2018
Updated by Larry Johnson
Beck States
Series of 1956-7
January 2018
Updated by Larry Johnson
Beck/TriColor FDCs
January 2018
Updated by Larry Johnson
|
Beck States and FDC Checklists
Updated for 2018
The Unnumbered Beck checklist was
updated today, Jan 26, 2018
See
new checklists HERE |

Scan from eBay |
New Addition: Unlisted CREW
Cover GT3 Mullinnix
This GT-3 USS Mullinnix CREW cover was in a lot of six
GT-3 Beck covers that sold for over $150. This CREW cover was
previously unlisted. The lucky eBay winner has a great gem
with this CREW cover. There are only a couple Beck CREW covers
know for GT-3
See all the GT-3 Beck
covers HERE
|
Here is a sample of how the eBay prices realized
are listed for the Beck 1000 cover series.
Almost 1000 "sold" prices were entered for 2017 sales on eBay.
eBay Prices Realized
2008 $4.50
2009 $3.00, $3.75
2010 $4.50
2011 $6.50
2012 $2.00,
$1.49, $2.00
2013 $5.00, $6.00
2014 $6.50, $4.00, $6.00, $4.02, $1.75, $6.50
2015 $2.37, $1.00, $4.50, $2.00, $4.50, $5.25,$6.25, $27.00 autog
2016 $5.61, $4.00, $4.25, $4.97, $8.00, $3.95, $3.25, $12.00 $3.98
2017
$1.50, $3.98,
$4.98. $6.00, $3.50, $9.50, $3.74, $3.00, $5.00,
$1.50,$1.50,
$3.98, $1.00, $1.00, $1.50, $1.50,
$5.00
$5.00, $3.00
2018
|
Nearly 1000 eBay "sold" Prices
Updated
|

Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
New Addition: A Variation of
the 1947 Cruise
Larry Johnson sent us this 1947 Beck cover. We have a similar
NJ cover on our site but this one is a different city and date.
|

Scan courtesy of D Phillips |
Interesting MW BECK Trivia
Item
D. Phillips send us this scan of MW Beck's guitar he had while on
WWII service in the US Navy. Beck's name and "Menasha, WI" is
written on the guitar. It looks like it is in good condition.
|

Scan courtesy of Charlie Hamilton
|
New Addition 1974 CREW cover |
_small1.jpg)
Missing the Green color
_small1.jpg)
Similar to 442 without the B number
Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson |
New Additions Including an
Printing Error Cover

B521 with the round RS added after the flight.
Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson |
 
The rubber stamp showing number produced is
interesting.
We don't know who produced the rubber stamp. We've
never seen this on a Beck cover before. See 631
HERE

Scans courtesy of Gerard
Zonneveld
Interesting GTA cover addressed to Mr. Beck.
|
New Additions Including a
Previously Unlisted Cover
Gerard Zonneveld sent us some great scans..We
have added the scans to the Beck site. See notes with each
cover.
 
Front and back of B782 USS Algol.
Previously unlisted.
Probably very rare. Only one we have seen.
HERE |
_small.jpg)
Cachet maker is Ralph P Werve not Beck
|
Cover Shown at left is NOT a
Beck Cover
We previously reported that these covers were Beck covers. But
with some additional searching and review
of the USCS Cachet Makers catalog, we now believe
the covers to be created by Ralph P. Werve of Saginaw Michigan.
|


|
Early Beck Cover Added
This is a cover by Beck that he produced while still in High School
and right before he went into the US Navy. This is only the
second one we have seen with this cachet. This postmark is NY
NY instead of Roosevelt NY.
|
 |
"mb" Cachets Question Ansered
Larry Johnson sent us the answer to our question about
the identity of cachet maker "mb". "mb" is actually
M. Billerth. He figured this mystery out while at the
recent APS show. Billerth issued a number of cachets
honoring President Kennedy.
|

This is the first B21 that we have seen with a
hand cancel


This cover has two different machine cancels.
Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson |
Nuclear Ships Covers Added
Larry Johnson sent us some very interesting scans
to add to our Beck Web site.
 
Donald Schultz was affiliated with the Nuclear
Ship Chapter and
probably sponsored this cover. We don't know for sure.
We do
know that Mr. Beck printed the cachet. The same design
was used for several ships in about 1963. |
  |
Nuclear Ships Covers Added
Art Cole sent us the following scans to add to our listing.
Many collectors are
very confused with the numbering system used for the nuclear ship
covers. We appreciate Art's help.
See the covers we have scans of HERE
|


Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
Beck Secondary Recovery Covers with
Additional Text
Larry Johnson sent us some very interesting scans shown at left.
Note how someone has crossed out the word FIRST and rubber stamped
the word SECOND on the cachet.
These are the only
ones we have seen like this and we are fairly certain that Mr. Beck
did NOT change the cachet.
|
Morris W. Beck States Issues
Morris W. Beck
produced two different series of covers honoring the states and territories.
These covers were produced for collectors that sent in their envelopes to
him.
It was a similar service to his other series such as Presidents and Naval
event covers. See the checklist for examples of the state series. These covers are hard to find especially in a
complete set. A complete set of the 1951-2 or 1956-7 series
may sell for about $200-300 each and the full sets are rarely found.
We know of several
collectors that want to locate other collectors of this series.
If you collect the
States issues and have covers to sell, trade or if you want to buy,
let us know and we will put you in touch with someone.
email
Owen
R. Murray
|
|

   
Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
More Beck recovery covers with
Round RS
Larry Johnson, a MW Beck cover collector sent us
more scans from the Gemini recovery force.
  
See the listing.
HERE |

Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson |
Beck Gemini 9 Cover We Have
Benn Looking For
Here is a Beck Gemini 9
Wasp recovery covers that we have been looking to find a scan.
Larry Johnson sent us one. We do have one with a cancel
variety but not with the correct cancel.
See the listing.
HERE
|
 
Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson |
More Beck Gemini recovery covers with
Round RS Beck Gemini sold
covers for very high
prices. Sold for $45.00 each. They have the round RS and are
addressed to Harry Rose.
See the Gemini cover listing.
HERE
 
|


Sample Covers. See main listing at link.
Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson |
Beck Gemini 9 covers with
Round RS 14 Beck Gemini 9
and 10 recovery covers (B647-B657), (664-671) sold for very high
prices. Several for $46.00 each. They have the round RS and are
addressed to Harry Rose.
See the Gemini 9 AND Gemini 10 cover listing.
HERE
|

|
Morris W. Beck States Issues
Morris W. Beck
produced two different series of covers honoring the states and territories.
These covers were produced for collectors that sent in their envelopes to
him.
It was a similar service to his other series such as Presidents and Naval
event covers. See the checklist for examples of the state series. These covers are hard to find especially in a
complete set. A complete set of the 1951-2 or 1956-7 series
may sell for about $200-300 each and the full sets are rarely found.
We know of several
collectors that want to locate other collectors of this series.
If you collect the
States issues and have covers to sell, trade or if you want to buy,
let us know and we will put you in touch with someone.
email
Owen
R. Murray
|
  |
Beck ASTP "Treasures"!
The two ASTP covers shown at left are very special
and only the
second ones we have seen. Les Winick got a hold of B998
and B999 and sent them for postmarking. Houston and KSC
Below is a very nice example of B999.

Scans courtesy of Dr Ross Smith |
-2.jpg)
.jpg)
Scan courtesy of Gerard Zonneveld
|
Previously Unlisted Beck
for Apollo 7 Here are two previously
unlisted Beck unlisted covers for Apollo 7.
It is unclear how these covers were created.
After Mr. Beck printed the cachet on the collector's envelopes
someone sent it to KSC for postmarking. Very unusual and
probably unique. |
_small.jpg) _small.jpg) _small.jpg)
|
Beck CREW Covers on eBay Bring
$71.16 Each
Three Beck CREW covers sold on eBay for $71.16
each.
USS Mansfield Beck assigned number B319 to
this ship.
USS DeHaven Beck assigned number B322
to this ship.
USS Taussig Beck assigned number B324 to
this ship
In the listings
(HERE) we show CREW covers
with the covers
assigned by Beck to that "B" cachet number. |
 |
Previously Unlisted Beck CREW
for Apollo 13
There was a lot of collector interest in bidding
on this unlisted
Apollo 13 Prime Recovery Crew Cover.
Final selling price after 12 bids was $310.00
This version of the cancel with the date
"not skewed" is
the most difficult to find. This is the ONLY one we have seen
with this cancel on Iwo Jima CREW cover.
|
|
Updated Beck Checklist for the
Numbered Series
Checklist
HERE
|







Scans courtesy of Charlie Hamilton
|
1946 Beck Covers Printed on
Postcards
Charlie Hamilton sent us some interesting Beck
covers from 1946
that were printed on postcards.
These covers are from 1946 after Mr. Beck
returned
home from
service in the US Navy during WWII.
Several of these covers show some clues how Mr.
Beck marked the back of the early covers. Note that some of
the scans
of the cover reverse show a small stamped "12" in the LRH corner.
The covers with the "12" are addressed
to the
same collector.
 
Reverse of the USS Dayton postcard.


Reverse of the USS Hyman postcard
 
|
The
following is a response to a new collector.
We've had a few inquires from newer collectors trying to
understand how Mr. Beck's cover service worked
and how there can be several covers from a recovery
ship with different "B" cachet numbers.
Morris W. Beck of
Wisconsin was a collector and cover dealer starting about
1943 and stopped producing covers in the mid
1970’s. His most popular series of Naval covers was the set
from 1962-1975 and consisted of 1000 cachets.
He printed cachets
for Navy ship commissioning, launchings, anniversaries, etc.
The most popular cachets (covers) were the
space recovery covers.
Mr. Beck tried very
hard to get the recovery force information from the US Navy
as early as he could before a flight, but as
time went on, timely information became hard to get in time
for printing and shipping deadlines.
Early in his efforts, he tried to print the name of the
recovery ship on the envelope but that didn’t work very
well, so most of
his space covers DO NOT have the ships name on the printed
cachet. (although the ships name does appear in the postmark
(cancellation).
The US Navy had a
coordinator (see blog article at
www.ormurray.com) to receive space cover postmarking
requests from
collectors and dealers. Generally, the Navy had a 2 cover
limit per collector, per event.
Collectors sent their requests for rubber stamp cachets
directly to the Navy. Mr. Beck was one of a number of
dealers that
provided the service of a printed color cachet.
As a "sidenote"
please note that Beck's printed color cachets and the rubber
stamp cachets used by the US Navy were very
similar. This is because Mr. Beck produced the rubber
stamp cachets used by the US Navy.
He sent them to the US Navy for each space flight at no
charge.

Above Left: Envelope sent to US Navy by
collector. Navy applied cachet and postmark.
Above Right:
Envelope with Mr. Beck's printed color cachet and "B Cachet
Number". Navy applied postmark only.
Both the example
ASTP covers probably had address removable labels and both
were sent to the collector as usual
mail after postmarking.
Mr.
Beck's Naval Cover Service
Mr. Beck provided
the service of printing the cachet on collector’s SASE
(self addressed stamped envelope)
envelopes sent to him.
Collectors could
also send a SASE directly to the Navy for the rubber stamp
cachet and postmarking.
Using the
information provided by the Navy regarding the total number
of ships in the recovery force,
Mr. Beck would assign a cachet number accordingly, such as B
708, B 709, etc.
So if the Navy told
Mr. Beck there would be 12 ships in the recovery force, then
Mr. Beck would print 12 different cachet designs and
assign/print accordingly. B708, B709, Cachet ID, etc.
Mr. Beck would print
the color cachet on the envelopes sent to him by collectors.
The printed (color cacheted) envelopes were sent by Mr. Beck
in bulk to the Navy for postmarking.
He prepared 400-1000 envelopes per ship according to his
customers orders.
He packed all the envelopes for one ship into a bulk
container marked accordingly.
When the Navy
received the shipments of printed color cacheted envelops
from Mr. Beck, they distributed the envelopes to the ships
of the recovery force.
This is where it got
“messy” because someone at the Navy opened boxes and
redistributed envelopes without
regard to the various cachet ID numbers. So, ships
received envelopes all mixed up.
That is why you
will see Beck covers from the same ship/event with different
cachet ID numbers.
Here is one of
MANY examples: All these covers are B569 but with
different ship cancellations.
B569 was suppose to be postmarked by USS Dupont.
In total, 440 covers were printed with B569. The
majority did go to USS Dupont,
but some unknown small quantity went to several other ships.
That is why the value of the covers varies.
A collector trying to assemble a complete collection has a
big challenge ahead!
 
We will add more to this article over time.
If you have any information or input to help us improve our site,
please let us know.
|
|
CLICK HERE to see
past articles...
CLICK HERE to see older articles...
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more
articles HERE
Even more
older articles HERE |

Scan courtesy of Lee Kok How
Added Nov 2016. Only one observed.
Sold for $152.50 on eBay.
|
Beck B671 Cover Added to the
Site
After all these years an unlisted Beck cover
comes to our
attention. It sold for $152.50! ! Happy Hunting.
It you see one like this, please let us know. |
See the
Mercury covers HERE |
Beck Mercury Covers Seen on
eBay
Several previously unlisted CREW covers are now
on the site.
317
USS Fletcher
317 USS De Haven
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Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
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Ships RS on Beck Commission Cover
B854
The cover at left has a small rubber stamp
applied by the ship. This is the only Beck cover that we have
seen with this rubber stamp.
|
 
Scans courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith |
Beck Space CREW Covers
These Beck CREW covers were sold for $31.00 each.
The market for Beck space covers continues to be fairly strong.
See more
covers from this Gemini flight HERE
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Scans courtesy of Joe Volutza
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US Navy Rubber Stamp Cachets
Designed by Beck
Instead of or in addition to sending covers to
Mr. Beck for printing, thousands of collectors sent their SASE
directly to the US Navy to get the cancellation for the return of
the ASTP mission on July 24, 1975.
Covers sent to the US Navy Pacific task force
were all postmarked in San Francisco. The rubber stamp cachet
was designed and provided to the US Navy by Mr. Beck. The US
Navy applied the cachet and postmark then returned the
serviced covers to collectors through the regular US mail stream.
The top cover with the blue cachet has the same
cancel that appears on the printed Beck cover B998.
The bottom cover with the red cachet has the same
cancel that appears on the printed Beck cover B999.
See the
ASTP covers in the Beck series HERE
|

Scan courtesy of Joe Volutza
|
Unlisted Beck Space Cover
This could be a one-of-a-kind. This cover
might have missed
the cancel on a ship and the USPS applied the Norfolk Cancel.
See the
listing HERE |

|
Unlisted Beck Space Cover
Dr. Ross Smith emailed us about
this Beck 758 USNS Vanguard cover found on eBay.
He states that now there are two
known examples of this cover. At left and below.
The one on eBay sold for $77.00

Scan courtesy of Dr Ross Smith |

 
|
Beck 1946 Navy Day
Covers
Larry Johnson sent these scans of Beck 1946 Navy Day covers.
Mr. Beck made special efforts to service covers
for Navy Day 1946. He had just returned from his WWII US Navy
service in 1946.
So far, we have over 25 different 1946 Navy Day
covers listed on our site and the checklist. We really don't
know how many covers of each ship were serviced by Beck. These
covers are usually selling for $10-20 or even more for the more
popular ships.
See more of the Navy Day covers
HERE
|


Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
Beck FDCS Added
We received a scan of a 1964 Beck
First Day Cover for the Nevada USPS issue. Beck's statehood
cachet made a good cachet for the new stamp.
 |
  
Scans courtesy of L.K.How
|
Very Important Beck Space
Covers Added
We received some high quality scans
of some very interesting and seldom seen Beck space covers from a
collector in Singapore.
  
|

Scan courtesy of L.K.How
|
Unlisted B804 Beck Apollo 11
USS Hornet on eBay
This Beck B804 sold on eBay for
$152.50. This is the first one observed with the Hornet Cancel
on B804.
There is a very faint pencil address to a postal
clerk.
See
other Apollo 11 covers HERE.
|

Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
More examples of Beck First
Day Covers
Scan is courtesy of Larry Johnson.
See the checklist of FDCs for more
FDCs.
|

Scan courtesy of Gerard Zonneveld |
Unlisted B998 Beck ASTP Space Cover
This BECK CREW cover is only the
second one we have seen for Apollo 13 postmarked on USS Stoddert.
There are many US Navy RS cachets available
for the Stoddert, but
no numbered (printed) Beck covers have been seen.
Below is the list of the US Navy ships that were part of
the Apollo 13 recovery force.
Apollo-Saturn 13 (AS-13) - April 11-17, 1970
USS Iwo Jima (PRS)
USS Benjamin Stoddert
USS Bordelon
USS Escape
USS Forest Royal
USS Granville S. Hall
USS Kawishiwi
USS New
USS William C. Lawe
|

Scan courtesy of Gerard Zonneveld |
Unlisted B998 Beck ASTP Space Cover
This wonderful and perhaps unique
cover from the recovery ship for ASTP was sent to us from G.
Zonneveld in Europe.
July 1975 to July 1976 USS New Orleans was on
duty with West Pac. The actual ASTP recovery was July 24,
1975. The significance of the Sep 2 date isn't certain.
We do know that it is the 30th anniversary of the Tokyo Bay
surrender of the Japanese which ended WWII.
Starting with
Apollo 16,
the US Navy postmarked
the covers
sent by
collectors and dealers
(including Beck) to Hawaii
for
postmarking. The
covers actually did not go
to the USS New
Orleans.
The significance of the
Beck cover shown here is
that it had
to have been
on board USS New Orleans to receive this
specific
postmark.
|

Scan courtesy of Gerard Zonneveld via Dr Ross
Smith
|
Unlisted B839 Beck CREW Space Cover
A previously unlisted CREW cover
shown here for Apollo 13 is a welcome addition to this site.
This is the only one we have ever seen. It appears almost 50
years after Apollo 13 historic and memorable flight.
Note that this cachet is the Beck cachet for
Apollo 13 ATLANTIC fleet. USS Kawishiwi was actually
part of the Pacific recovery fleet.
This is the only Beck cover we know of with an
Atlantic Fleet cachet that was postmarked on a Pacific Fleet ship. |

Scan courtesy of Tom Steiner |
Unlisted B801 Beck Space Cover
A Scan of an unlisted B801 was sent
to us by Tom Steiner. After 45 years a previously unlisted
Beck cover for the Apollo 11 moon landing is found. It is
amazing that this B801 version has been unlisted for so long.
Thanks Tom.
|

Note the missing RED ASTP in the cachet
Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson |
B999 Missing Type "ASTP"
Please refer to the B999 covers
shown on the left. If you compare the Beck printed cachets,
you will see that the cachet on the bottom is missing the red type "ASTP".
Larry Johnson spotted this error
and brought it our attention. We have never see this error
before. We searched 28 B999 covers and none of them have this
error.
Larry reports seeing one more and
Dr. Ross Smith now reports having one after reviewing his
collection.
Please review your collection and let us know
what you find.
UPDATE: Gerard Zonneveld from Europe reports that
he has two of these covers in his collection
|


It is very unusual to see a printed Beck
cachet without postmark or address. This cover probably came
from Mr. Beck's printing samples. It sold on eBay for $22.50.
|
Unlisted B774 Beck Space Cover
An unlisted B774 postmarked on USS
Guadalcanal, an Apollo 8 secondary recovery ship. The cover
was sold on eBay for a bargain price of only $14.99!
|
 |
Beck Space Cover With Hand
Cancel
Beck 729, USS Bennington, has
always been observed as a machine cancel. Dr. Ross Smith
reports the B729 with a hand cancel being sold on eBay for
$57.00 after 9 bids.
This is the only B729 with the hand
cancel observed. There are hundreds B729 out there, but they
all have the machine cancel. Now, ONE lucky collector has a
great cover. Perhaps more will be found in the future.
|
        |
More Beck Space Covers
Thanks goes to
Larry Johnson for sending us scans of the 16 Beck covers shown here.
These are great covers for a space or Beck collector. We've
added the autographed covers to the page showing more autographs.
HERE
 
Note added date below cachet
  
Note how dark the cachet is.
   |



We have wondered for some time how it was
possible for W R Skelley to obtain so many important space flight
covers. Now it has become clear that he was the coordinator
for the US Navy and had access to and distributed covers to the
recovery ships. |
More Skelly/Beck Space Covers
eBay listed
several Beck space covers that hit high prices about $60-70
each. Great covers for a space or Beck collection.
More Information About W R Skelley, Jr

|

Scan courtesy of
Greg Ciesielski |
An Interesting Cover Addressed
to Mr. Beck
Greg
Ciesielski found this 1963 Roosevelt cover and sent a scan to
us.
Mr. Beck sent numerous covers to ships for postmarks
for his personal collection. These are easy to spot
because he preprinted his mailing address on the covers.
The cachet
and return card on this cover was applied by
the ship and the cover was postmarked in Charleston,
SC. Keep in mind that modern subs had rubber stamp
cachets but they didn't have a post office on board the sub.
That is why you see sub covers postmarked at a
port or on another ship.
|

Scan courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith |
Previously Unlisted B317 USS
Mansfield
Dr. Ross Smith sent us this scan of a B317
USS Mansfield. Our site shows covers from ten different
ships/locations for Beck cachet B317.
Mr. Beck's printing log shows that B317 was
designated for USS Fletcher. Someone at the US Navy
redistributed the covers to many ships instead of sending all the
envelopes to the Fletcher as planned. This caused a lot of
interesting varieties. There are other covers for this Mercury
flight postmarked on the USS Mansfield with most of them on B319.
Now Dr. Ross Smith has sent us a scan for the
eleventh. See the others HERE.
|

Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson |
Beck States Anniversaries of
1951-52
An interesting variety from the 1951-52 Beck
state anniversaries is shown at left.
A collector used the 1951 cover for a dual cancel
for the 1976 state flags issue.
See the updated checklist
HERE
courtesy of Larry Johnson.
|


Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
Unlisted Beck 1946 Navy Day
Cover
Larry Johnson sent us a scan of a previously
unlisted 1946 Navy Day cover.
Mr. Beck made special efforts to service covers
for Navy Day 1946. He had just returned from his WWII US Navy
service earlier in 1946.
So far, we have about 25 different 1946 Navy Day
covers listed on our site and the checklist. We really don't
know how many covers of each ship were serviced by Beck. These
covers are usually selling for $10-20 or even more for the more
popular ships, like this one from the USS Missouri BB-63.
See more of the Navy Day covers
HERE
The checklist will be updated soon. See
HERE |
 |
One More GT-3 Color Variety
David Ball sent us a scan of another GT-3
printing error, missing the yellow color.
See the article below.
|

Scan courtesy of Tom Steiner |
New Addition and GT-3
Variety-Missing Color Tom Steiner
sent us the scan at left of three GT-3 Beck covers that are missing
the YELLOW color. See another variety at this link.
HERE
See all the GT-3 covers
HERE
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|
|
 |
Beck TriColor Cover
Stewart Milstein sent us a scan of a previously unlisted
Beck TriColor cover. The cachet was printed for the 1960 Inter
American Conference of American States.
The cover is postmarked in Appleton WI in August
of 1962.
|

|
Unlisted CREW Cover
A previously unlisted Apollo 7 Beck cover was
sold on eBay for $69.00
This CREW cover and postmarked only at KSC on
the
launch date of the mission.
|

Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
|
Unlisted CREW Cover
Larry Johnson sent us this scan of a Beck 471 cover
without the printed "B" number, making this cover
a crew cover.
The small penciled address on the cover is a
Box
in Groton. Someone familiar with the commissioning.
We've
added the cover to our listing as a CREW cover.
|
|
|

Scan courtesy of Charlie Hamilton
|
Unusual PINK envelope
We have seen perhaps twenty thousand or more
Beck covers but VERY few were made on envelopes or cards other than
on white paper stock. |
Below shows the front and back of two different
Flag Day
covers. The reverse is very interesting
because it has a Tazz Nicholson cachet.
Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson.
 
Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson

 |

1967 Keel Laying of HMS Sir Winston Churchill.
This cover is in our checklist but we are now adding a scan. |

Scan courtesy of Tom Steiner |
New Addition and GT-3
Variety-Missing Color Tom Steiner
sent us the scan at left of three GT-3 Beck covers that are missing
the YELLOW color. See another variety at this link.
HERE
See all the GT-3 covers
HERE
|


|
New Additions and Unlisted
B374 (CREW) and B317
Rich Hoffner sent us the scan of the USS McCloy CREW
cover, similar to B374. First Day in Commission.
Note from Rich: The sailor did not
place a stamp on the
cover. While original covers were done with a type 2 cancel
with a straight line dater, this cancel has the proper dates
in the dial. Most likely done after commissioning day when
daters were located. It is also folded in half. While a
collector would not do that, someone who was not a collector
probably mailed it to someone inside a letter.
Steve Durst sent us the scan of the B317
recovery cover.
The USS Lofberg cover was previously unlisted and now
added to our Beck cover listing. |
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