Page 14 - Demo

Their government vehicle was filled to capacity with envelopes bearing the new stamp. However, each time the lift-off was delayed, they had to travel around, to avoid attracting attention. At one point, they headed to Orlando, and just missed a roadblock where all the cars were searched for an escaped murderer. Twice, they drove all the way back to Washington DC, unloaded the stamped envelopes, and placed them in a vault at the Division of Philately.On February 20, King and Pulinski returned once again to Florida. This time, as soon as Glenn was safely aboard the Noa, they started cancelling their load of stamped envelopes, most of which was done in the basement of the Cocoa, Florida Post Office. The canceling machines had come to Cocoa from Detroit, via Jacksonville, Florida. As backup, two additional cancelling machines were shipped to Atlanta, Georgia. The special Pitney Bowes steel canceling dies were purchased outside of normal Post Office distribution channels as %u201cexperimental equipment.%u201d As the covers were being cancelled, the temporary Cape Canaveral Post Office was opened, and First Day Covers were immediately made available for sale to the public there. They were also sold at the Cocoa Post Office, but most were shipped by air to the Post Office Department%u2019s Philatelic Sales Agency in Washington, DC where collectors (and cachet makers) could order them by mail. The cost was 1-cent over the cost of the stamp, so a cover with a single stamp was priced at a nickel, and a cover with a block of four stamps was 17 cents. Traditionally, First Day Covers are cancelled on the first day of a stamp%u2019s release. But with the Project Mercury stamp, demand was so high that the Post Office was processing covers as late as April 17%u2014all with the February 20, 1962 date and the Cape Canaveral location. Eventually, approximately 3 million First Day Covers were sold, which was a record. The vast majority were purchased through the Philatelic