THE ROCKET MAIL PAGE, PART 2
By Paul A. Roales
Updated: April 28, 2013 Return to the opening Rocket Mail page here.
NEWS
(Added April 28, 2013) RESEARCH AND ANSWERS.
By Paul A. Roales and others.
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ITEM 1: SOME NEW INFO ON US EZ 7.
I bought a copy of the book "A. C. Roessler Photo Cachet Catalog" by Barry Newton (F.D.C. Publishing, 1977) and it contains a little info I had never seen before about US EZ 7. It included a page reproduced from Roessler's occasional publication "Air Plane Stamp News #163" about the flight which I reproduce on the left. Note: The publication date is an estimate by Newton as Roessler did not date these publications.
There are some problems with this article. At one point Roessler states that the rocket fell "in such a postion that rescue was impossible". Yet later he says the rocket was "on display at the Newark Stamp Co.". But there is some info in this article that has not appeared elsewhere. His references to the other rocket mail at the end of this article are apparently about US EZ 8 by Willy Ley.
ITEM 2: SOME ANSWERS.
John Haynes has graciously commented on two of the cover questions I recently posted on this page. Thanks John.
About the 1959 American Legion cover (my March 30, 2013 column below) he says: "I have a number of these covers and they are all identical in terms of markings, stamps and text. The only difference that I have seen is that I have one cover which is an aerogram - this too has all the markings etc as the one depicted in your item. There are no numbers on the covers which indicate to me that they are commemorative in nature and have not been flown."
A set of 2 versions of these covers sold on eBay on April 26. Although the seller "hints" that they were flown, he provides no evidence. They were eBay item #130892943306 and the pair sold for $36.00, so they are obviously not common.
About US EZ 6C1 (my February 3, 2013 column below), John says: "I have one cover (6C1) which was addressed to Zucker and which used a Kesseler envelope. (it does NOT have the Goudket address stamp on the rear and is not numbered - see below). It has the same Flatbush wavy lines cancel on the stamp (NOT postal stationary) and has a similar but different cancel. This cancel is different in that in place of the year date it has 'N.Y.'. The day date (23) looks the same as the other cancels in that the 3 is raised slightly above the 2. It was sent at 8:30 pm. The canceller used looks to have been rubber rather than the metal canceller used for the others that I have. I thus conclude that this was cancelled by a different canceller.
All of the others that I have have the Goudket address on the rear of 3c postal stationary cover and appear to be individually numbered in either black (1935 dates) or green (1955 dates) as detailed below. Each have what appears to be identical metal cancellers of wavy line Flatbush and CDS of Broolyn. In all cases the day date (23) shows the 3 being slightly raised above the 2. All of the 1935 dates were posted at 2-pm whilst all those with 1955 dates were posted at 2-30 pm. (As are yours). The 1935 CDS has a full round bottom to it whereas the 1955 is incomplete at the bottom and tends to be flattened. Given the time difference I conclude that different cancellers have been used.
I note that all the 1955 items which have vignettes have all been placed right on the edge of the green triangular cachet. An attempt has been made to tie the vignette and cachet by the judicious use of green ink. I have a note from Al Barnes who also makes the same observation. I do not know Al but I believe that he was around certainly 10 years ago. His note is undated so I cannot be sure if it is pre or post 1955 but I suspect post.
So my conclusion is that there were a number of 3c postal stationary items left over which had already been stamped with the green triangular cachet, with Goudkets address on the rear and not numbered. At some later time (1955?) they had been numbered in green, posted and some had had added the relevant vignette which had been 'tied' to the green cachet post event. This was a different canceller. All this seems to point to having been done at some later time - was it half an hour later or twenty years later? Perhaps it was just an attempt to gain additional revenue. The two points that concern me about the notion that they were done as a commemorative release in 1955 is that firstly EZ were in their heyday then so would have been well aware of any such issue as would Kronstein. The second point is that if they were posted twenty years later surely the postal costs would not be same as 1935 and thus I would have expected some of these covers to have postage due demands. I have yet to see any postage due markings on these covers. I am lead to the conclusion that these were posted later as a means of gaining extra revenue and that this was done nearer 1935 than 1955.
Items I have looked at:
6C1 Zucker cover described above. Not numbered
6C1 cover numbered 061 in black
6C1a cover numbered 051 in black
6C1d cover (no stamp) numbered 047 in green
6C1d cover (no stamp) numbered 045 in green
6C1d cover (with stamp) numbered 057 in green"
One note by me: the U.S. First Class postage rate was 3 cents from July 6, 1932 until August 1, 1958, so there would be no "postage due" on a 1955 commemorative cover.
REMINDER.
This page depends upon your information to prosper. Please contact me if you have any rocket mail information or news.
(Added March 30, 2013) A QUESTION AND AN UPDATE.
By Paul A. Roales and others.
ITEM 1: A QUESTION.
On March 18th. I heard from Carol Cheung, a collector of rocket mail as well as the youth officer of The Hong Kong Philatelic Society. She sent me a scan of a rocket mail cover she had and wondered if it was flown. The cover is shown here on the right.
I replied "The cover scan you sent me is unknown to me. I know of the original 1936 American Legion flights, the 1961 and 1966 Anniversary flights, but I know nothing about any 1959 flights. I would guess that it is an UNFLOWN commemorative cover. It was apparently issued by American Legion Post #37 in McAllen, TX. But I have no record of a launch on that date in any reference material I have (including several books written by that group)."
So I am asking my readers if they know anything about this cover. Have you ever seen it before? If you can help Carol email me at paroales@ionet.net and I will pass the information to her.
ITEM 2: AN UPDATE.
This month I sold 3 copies of my Kaufmann-Roales Rocket Mail List. It was first issued in 2004 and I have been selling them for $5 each postpaid. However, due to postage increases , I am forced to raise the price to $6. If you are not familiar with the list here is the description reproduced from my main page.
"THE KAUFMANN-ROALES UNITED STATES ROCKET MAIL LIST THROUGH 2003. The list prints the information in Bill Kaufmann's unpublished 1996 update and revision of the EZ Catalogs plus my additions to Bill's list and my update of the information through 2003. It covers the United States only. The list has no illustrations and does not reprint the entries in the EZ Catalogs, just the omissions and over 30 years of U.S. updates since 1972. It lists 116 covers and many more varities that are not in the EZ Catalogs. The book measures 8.5" x 11" and has 12 pages. I am selling these for $6 each postage paid in the US (outside the US contact me at paroales@ionet.net for additional postage costs). Send check or money order to: Paul Roales; 1804 S. 117th. East Ave.; Tulsa, OK 74128; USA."
(Added February 3, 2013) AN UNREPORTED LAUNCH AND A QUESTION.
By Paul A. Roales and others.
ITEM 1: AN UNREPORTED LAUNCH FROM LAST YEAR.
Just this weekend I got the following report from Miri Matejka in Austria. "On July 9, 2012 thew “GMÜNDER WELTRAUMFREUNDE” launched a modell rocket with 100 envelopes ( only 5 pieces from each sort – VIP, TEST, normal ) for following events: Monkey Scatback, HL-10, Astronaut GLEN, ATV-3, Dragon-C-2, Shenzhou-9 and Tiangong. In 2013 we plan a rocketlaunch and a special picture-postmark for: 35 years first opening of an official space post office on March 8, 1978."
The scans sent me are shown below.
ITEM 2: A QUESTION FOR RESEARCHERS.
Recently I heard from Walter Hopferwieser, and he has a question that he hopes someone can help him with. He asks: "I almost finished my catalogue on "Pioneer Rocket Mail and Space Mail". There is still something which puzzles me: I am attaching two letters of second Sykora rocket flight which took place on 9/23/1935. 255 covers were flown. The rocket exploded in mid-air. Initially 198 covers were recovered. The received a cachet "Rocket and Mail Damaged by Explosion". A boy found another 38 covers in the evening, when this cachet already was disassembled. Some covers are postmarked with dated 9/23/1955. The bear the rocket mail cachet of the flight. I never saw a 1955 cover with damaged cachet. On the depicted cover the rocket mail stamp was pasted on later. The other 1955 covers do not have any rocket mail stamp at all. All pre-1955 rocket mail catalogues I have as well as Max Kronstein's "Rocket Mail Flights of the world to 1986" do not mention a 1955 postmark variety. Only Ellington-Zwissler catalogue lists it as flown "cover with wrong postmark Sept. 23, 1955" 6C1d. Thus I assume, the 1955 covers most likely are unflown covers commemorating the 20th anniversary of this rocket flight. Any ideas are welcome. Does anybody know an expert on Brooklyn, NY machine cancellations?"
Those covers are shown below. You can contact Walter at walter@hopferwieser.net
(Added January 1, 2013) UPDATES AND NEWS.
By Paul A. Roales and others.
ITEM 1: NEW INFORMATION ON THE CANADIAN ROCKET MAIL.
I heard from Wilfred Ashley McIsaac who flew the Canadian rocket mail that I reported last month (see below). He supplied me with a scan of one of the covers from his first flight in 2011 (on left) and corrected my date of his third flight to June 29th, 2012 not the 27th. Thanks Wilfred.
ITEM 2: A ROCKET MAIL OBITUARY.
I received the new Regency-Superior auction catalog in December and it contains the obituary of Michael Orenstein. He was credited by many as being the Father of the Space Collectable Auction. He convinced Superior to hold their first seperate Space Memorabilia Auction in 1992. He was also a friend to the Rocket Mail community and featured rocket mail in many of their auctions. I worked with him when we were trying to update the Ellington-Zwisler Rocket Mail Catalog, but we could not get the AAMS (who owns the copyright on the book) to go along with us. Rest in Peace.
ITEM 3: THE LATEST ASTROPHILE.
The ASTROPHILE #313 contains several rocket mail and space mail articles. They are: Dragon C2 Space Mail, by Walter Hopferweiser on p. 38; Selected Space Covers Of The Week, by Steve Durst on p. 51; Discoverer 17 And The First Space Letter, by Walter Hopferweiser on p. 58; Who Was Barbara Baker, by Steve Durst on p. 60; Flown X-15 Rocketplane Covers, by Barbarra Baker on p. 62; and Census Of Known and Flown X-15 Covers, by Dennis Dillman on p. 66.
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