Morris W. Beck US Navy Covers
 

#1 First cover in the 1000 Navy Series. 1962 USS T Jefferson	Special "S" cover USS Enterprise Est $85	Mercury Flight of Cooper	USS Hornet-Neil Armstrong-Lunar Landing 1969
Apollo 15 Prime Recovery Ship	USS New Orleans VERY rare July 25 cancel Est $140	Apollo Soyuz on Air Mail Envelope	#1000 Last cover in Navy Series USS Vinson. 1975

Reference Catalog, Checklist and BLOG for US Navy Cover Collectors
Compiled and Managed by Owen R. Murray, A member of the USCS #5676 since 1966, and ATA Space Unit #4500
This Web site has over 3,000 scans of Beck Navy and Event Covers with Reference Text.
Home     Morris W. Beck Cover Basics      About this Web Site    
 
Beck Space Cachet Designs     #6 USS Dace Overprint 

    Cover Varieties Oddities     Beck's Messages     Beck's Personal Covers    Astronaut Autographs

1943-1970's Events     Nuclear Ships     Foreign    President Series     States Series    First Day Covers   

The Numbered Series    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

 Small Rubber Stamps on Space Covers
Apollo PRS Postmarked in Hawaii    WHAT IS A CREW COVER?
ASTP USS New Orleans July 25, 1975 onboard Cover
How postage rates affected collecting  Beck Printing Log for Numbered Series
  Updated Checklist Jan 2016   GTA-8 USS Boxer  Quantities Beck 929 Hawkins
       
Copyright ©2000-2016 Owen R Murray.  All Rights Reserved.      Revised: Friday September 23, 2016.

A Resource and Blog for Collectors of Morris W. Beck Philatelic Covers. 
Owen R. Murray  About this site

Latest BLOG Update:

September 23, 2016
 

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
Scans courtesy of Joe Volutza	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
Cover was serviced on a pink envelope supplied by the collector.  Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson Note how the cachet that was printed by Mr. Beck overlaps the plate number selvage. Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson	Beck Covers Added Note the small maroon, red or blue 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 rubber stamp and returned the covers to the collectors using their SASE. Keep in mind that not very many covers have this rubber stamp.  Mr. Beck applied the rubber stamp to any covers the collector sent in, not just CREW covers.    SEE MORE INFORMATION 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
	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.
	First Time We Have Seen States Postcard Larry Johnson sent us this scan of a Beck States POSTCARD! This is the first Beck states postcard we have seen and we have no idea if others exist. Note the wording on the reverse of the card.   Thanks Larry and keep searching those cover boxes at the shows! ! !
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.
Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson	New Additions to Beck Statehood and FDC Series We have been looking for these Morris Beck's Statehood Series. Larry Johnson sent us these scans for our site.   Beck's Statehood Series are hard to find. You can view more information on the Statehood Series HERE.   We have never seen this JFK Beck FDC #1287. You can view more information on Beck FDCs  HERE. Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson
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.
Dr. Ross Smith sent us scans of some Mercury covers that have the printed address of Morris Beck.  We believe that the cachet shown below was designed and serviced by/for Donald Schultz.  We don't know for sure if the US Navy had copies of the cachet rubber stamp to apply to covers.  We raise this question because of covers like the USS Constellation shown at the right. The Schultz cachet is on the back of the cover.  So when was Schultz's cachet applied to the cover and who applied it?   Scans courtesy of Dr. Ross Smith	More New Additions   This is the back of the USS Constellation cover shown above.
Scan courtesy of Woody Witt.  A good example of a cover with Morris W Beck's address printed on the envelope. This USS Intrepid is considered to be the "Captain's Cover". We believe the cachet was printed aboard the ship.  Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson   Sold for $76 on eBay.  New addition. 4/2015 B805 CREW with VIP label   The Guam (above) and the Wasp (below) sold for $173.50 on eBay! This scan does not show a Beck number.  It could be a CREW cover B706. The scan could also be cropped so it doesn't show the Beck cachet number.  We don't have any examples of B706 CREW so we won't officially list it as such.	New Additions Sold on eBay for above average prices from the collection of Joseph P Harowitz.  Many have the VIP label and some are CREW Covers. Unlisted CREW cover B841 sold for $42.50 with the USS Ozark Apollo 11 CREW cover shown at left. Previously unlisted. B623  Sold on eBay $213 B732 Previously unlisted.  $55 along with B716 B584 CREW  The seller on eBay states that this cover does not have the B cachet number. B540 CREW  $100 on eBay along with GT5 Lake Champlain GT3 CREW  See B515 The Intrepid and Lake Champlain covers sold on eBay $106.50   B791 CREW  $85 on eBay   B655 B605 is this cachet yellow or orange?
Scan courtesy of Steve Durst	New Additions Steve Durst sent us this scan of a Mercury manned space flight recovery cover with a printed address to Morris Beck.  This cover has the ships rubber stamp cachet.  Mr. Beck did not print a cachet for the recovery ship, USS Kearsarge, but he did print cachets for three secondary ships. Beck cachets B77, B78, B79
Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson USS Randolph CV-15-4/MAR/1947/  / USS Sea Robin with Hand Cancel  May 25, 1944,| This is the correct Launching date	Previously Unlisted and  New Additions Scans courtesy of Larry Johnson Another 1947 Midshipmen cover We assume this is a Beck cachet but not absolutely certain.  It has similar artwork to many other Beck covers but it could be a generic clip art.  According to Larry Johnson, there are no markings on the reverse of the cover.
B875 CREW	Previously Unlisted and  New Additions Beck B875 without the number, a CREW cover.  We now have two USS Austin Apollo 15 CREW covers on the site. The difference is the location of the ship's name in the cancel. Scan courtesy of Steve Durst
Previously Unlisted and  New Additions B898 CREW with ONLY the Hand Cancel. 1955 dated Beck cover for Puerto Rico with "states" cachet. The actual date of the opening for the airport in San Juan was two days later, May 22, 1955. Scan on eBay and courtesy of C. Hamilton.   Scans below are courtesy of Larry Johnson Cover with the printed address of MW Beck.  Mr. Beck was a collector of Naval covers.  We have seen similar covers where Mr. Beck sent SSAE to ships requesting cachets.  There doesn't seem to be any specific significance to this date.  See other covers from his collection HERE. B539 with the small RS applied after the space flight. Possibly Nuclear Ships Cachet #1   Postcard	New Additions To This Beck Site Scans are courtesy of Larry Johnson B517 with the small RS applied after the space flight. Gray envelope Gray envelope Autograph of CO Autograph of CO Yellow envelope. One of the prototypes of the numbered series. One of the prototypes of the numbered series. Sailor's mail a few weeks after the atomic bombs. Similar cachet to B764.  Click HERE     Crew cover similar to Beck 352 Similar cachet to B412.  Click HERE
See previously entry below about these ships cancels on B631. These covers are likely unique and we probably won't see any more of these (B630 postmarked on these two ships).	Unlisted Beck Covers Surface From 1960's is Likely One of a Kind
	Thanks goes to Larry Johnson for sending us scans of three Morris W Beck state commemorative covers from 1951-2. These were previously unlisted is our checklist. See more HERE
Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson	These covers were printed for Martin Longseth a collector.  In 1976, Longseth sent this cover to every ship with a post office. In 2014 a number of these covers with different ship cancelations sold for about $10 each. See HERE for more examples  We have added 16 new covers.
	CLICK HERE to see past articles... CLICK HERE to see older articles... More older articles HERE Even more older articles HERE

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. 

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. 

Home     Morris W. Beck Cover Basics      About this Web Site    
Beck Space Cachet Designs     #6 USS Dace Overprint  #220 USS Lowry
   Cover Varieties Oddities  Beck's Messages  Beck's Personal Covers  Astronaut Autographs
1943-1970's Events     Nuclear Ships     Foreign    President Series     States Series    First Day Covers   

The Numbered Series    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     Beck 929 Hawkins

ASTP USS New Orleans July 25, 1975 onboard Cover

How postage rates affected collecting       Beck Printing Log for Numbered Series

        Download Checklists   
 

This is an Online Reference Catalog.  Please note that the naval covers illustrated on this Web site
 are for reference only and not for sale.  This is a private Web site for the enjoyment of collectors of navy covers. 

Please send comments or questions to Owen R. Murray     Also see Owen's Photos Site

Copyright ©2000-2016 Owen R Murray.  All Rights Reserved.    Revised: Friday September 23, 2016.