Collectors scrambling to get Apollo, Pa., moon landing postmark

Get them before some stamp collector in Missouri does.

The hottest commodity out of Apollo is a 50th anniversary moon landing commemorative envelope and postal cancellation. Although the 50th anniversary on July 20 of Neil Armstrong’s historic leap for mankind has passed, the excitement has not, at least in Apollo.

When Apollo Postmaster Dale Walker arrived at work Monday, he had a stack of letters requesting the special commemorative postal cancellations from all over the country — not to mention earlier requests from Germany, Belgium and Canada.

“It’s amazing,” said Walker, who has never been involved with a commemorative postal cancellation, which is an official, pictorial postmark approved by the U.S. Postal Service for local events and commemorations.

Walker had some 30 letters requesting 150 postal cancellations.

“Some wanted me to send it in the regular mail stream so their kids and grandkids would get it,” said Walker. “One person wrote, ‘Check out the postmark.’ ”

The Apollo Post Office has received envelopes with requests for the moon landing commemorative postmark from 35 states. There could be more, as the postmark will be available until Aug. 20.

Meanwhile, the Apollo Historical Society is down to fewer than 75 of its custom 50th anniversary envelopes, the moon landing stamp and special Apollo Borough postal cancellation. They won’t last at the sweet deal of $2 each.

In addition to being the main sponsor of the 50th moon landing celebration in town on July 20, the Apollo Area Historical Society also sought and got Postal Service approval for the special commemorative postal cancellation and then had the custom envelopes designed.

With only 400 of the envelopes printed, the crowd bought 300 of them during the moon landing celebration. Apollo postal personnel were on-site throughout the celebration hand canceling the envelopes.

“People wanted something physical in their hands to commemorate the event,” said Sue Ott, vice president of the historical society.

“We didn’t expect it to take off like it did,” she said. Proceeds benefit the historical society.

But history has repeated itself.

Apollo Borough first came up with the idea to print special commemorative envelopes with the Apollo postmark in 1969 — just like it came up with the idea to throw a parade to celebrate the namesake moon mission.

“Back then, it was a really big thing. There was so much excitement,” said Alan Morgan, Apollo Historical Society secretary.

There were five different envelopes/postage dates in 1969 to be had in Apollo to honor the moon landing. Several thousand specialty envelopes were printed at one time for a town with a population of just 2,700, according to Morgan.

“The post office was getting orders from all over the country, all over the world,” he said.

Before the internet, newspaper wire services wrote stories about the special commemorative envelopes and the value of having them postmarked from Apollo, according to Morgan.

Beacon Printing in New Kensington designed special envelopes with the images for the Apollo 11 blast-off on July 16, the landing on July 20 and the splashdown on July 24.

Then, the Postal Service issued the commemorative Apollo 11 moon landing stamp on Sept 9. U.S. Rep. John P. Saylor, who represented the 12th Congressional District, tried, unsuccessfully, to have the first day of the new postal stamp issue held in Apollo.

However, he held a day-after ceremony at Apollo’s Owens Field, where the Apollo Post Office hand canceled on-site special commemorative envelopes.

The stamp was historic enough for some Apollo businessmen to go to Washington, D.C., where the stamp was first issued, and bring it back to Owens field for the second-day celebration for people to purchase.

The artwork for the hand-canceled stamp this year, based on a previous stamp, was designed by Joe Kerr Jr., and the artwork for the commemorative envelope was designed by Dolly McCoy.

Both are borough residents who donated their services.