Page 21 - Demo

because we didn%u2019t have any envelopes, we were satisfied with just purchasing several of the new stamps.However, off to one side, there was another boy, standing at one of those tall counters found in many Post Offices. He had a stack of envelopes, and was carefully affixing a new Project Mercury stamp to each. I guessed he was trying to finish before the Post Office closed at 5:00 o%u2019clock so he could have them all cancelled. By a quarter till five, most of his envelopes were stamped, so it looked like he was going to make it. But he was near enough to us, that he could hear our conversation about covers cancelled in Lafayette having no value. Suddenly, he gathered up all his stamped envelopes, unstamped envelopes, and extra stamps, and simply left the Post Office. Even today, I still feel badly for him, because the unimportance of a Lafayette cancellation was just the opinion of several ignorant kids. We obviously had no idea there might be people all across the country interested in a Lafayette cancellation. His stamped envelopes were probably eventually used for mailing in payments for his parents%u2019 gas and electric bills, or for letters to friends or relatives. But it%u2019s sad they weren%u2019t cancelled on February 20, 1962.I quit collecting stamps around 1965, and relegated my various albums to a top shelf in my bedroom closet. Then, when I was 69-years-old, I began collecting covers, specifically Indiana%u2019s First Flight Air Mail Covers, and First Trip Highway Post Office Covers. Some months later, I started two collections of First Day Covers%u2014for the 1950 3-cent Indiana Territory Sesquicentennial stamp, and for Lafayette%u2019s 1959 7-cent Balloon Jupiter stamp. While assembling them, my interest in the Project Mercury stamp, and the actual space flight itself, was revived.This collection was begun in January of 2020, almost 58 years after John Glenn%u2019s historic orbital flight. While working on it, I%u2019ve learned many facts and figures I never knew before, about the flight, the stamp, its secret release, and the wide variety of cachets that were produced. This is a big reason why I collect covers%u2014the knowledge I gain in the process.In particular, this collection contains matched sets of plate-number blocks, but it is mostly devoted to First Day Covers. The majority were cancelled at Cape Canaveral (the official Post Office of first release), but there are also covers cancelled at over a third of the other 305 Post Offices where the stamp was released, and a handful were cancelled at nearby unofficial cities. It also contains a selection of Space Event Covers marking the various Mercury launches, and souvenir sheets from Philatelic Exhibitions. Of the 201 different cachets listed in the Mellone%u2019s First Day Covers of the 1960s and Mellone%u2019s First Day Cover First Cachets of the 1960s, about half are represented herein. Also included are many unlisted cachets.