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.

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.
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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 Checklists   GTA-8 USS Boxer  Quantities Beck 929 Hawkins
       
Copyright ©2000-2019 Owen R Murray, Retired USAF.  All Rights Reserved.      Revised: Wednesday February 13, 2019.

A Resource and Blog for Collectors of Morris W. Beck Philatelic Covers. 
Owen R. Murray Retired MSGT 20 yr USAF/ANG    About this site  

In memory of Morris W. Beck, 1926-2011, USNavy WWII Vet
 

Latest BLOG Update:

February 13, 2019

 

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 See other covers HERE
	The Article About CREW Covers Is Totally Revised See the new page HERE
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            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.
	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.
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.
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
Missing the Green color   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
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
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.
	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 advertised his service in the philatelic newspapers offering to print a cachet on collector’s envelopes for a few cents each.   See  http://beck.ormurray.com/advertising.htm   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.    For Mr. Beck's cover service, Collectors would send a supply (25-50) of SASE to Mr. Beck with a small service fee for cachet printing. See  http://beck.ormurray.com/advertising.htm 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. Look at some of the print log sheets Mr. Beck filled out that are shown on our site.  http://beck.ormurray.com/becklog/index.htm 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... Even 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
Scan courtesy of Larry Johnson	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
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
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.
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.
	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 ©2000-2019 Owen R Murray.  All Rights Reserved.    Revised: Wednesday February 13, 2019.