Oct 23 1977
From The Space Library
The NY Times reported that Capt. Edgar D. Mitchell, astronaut on the Apollo 14 mission, had taken 55 special stamp covers on his flight and had just sold the first for $4200. The San Francisco firm that auctioned the stamp earlier in Oct. said the buyer was a major stamp dealer in Italy.
In 1972 NASA had reprimanded the Apollo 15 astronauts for smuggling 400 first-day covers to the moon and selling 100; the 300 covers not sold were turned over to the U.S. for "safe storage in the archives." The Apollo 14 crew had carried 200 silver medals on the 1971 moon flight, keeping 150 for "private use," but had not been reprimanded because none of the medals had been sold. The Calif. dealer said Mitchell, now a civilian living in Fla., had brought in the covers for appraisal and was advised to find the market value by selling one. NASA said it knew Mitchell had taken the covers in his "personal preference kit"; when it asked about them, he replied "It's none of your business," and a few days later had announced his retirement. Official NASA comment on the sale: "Unfortunate." (NYT, Oct 23/77, 45)
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