40th Anniversary of the First Man on Moon Stamp

The Collectspace.com website reports that it was 40 years ago this week on Sept. 9 that the United States issued the 10-cent First Man on the Moon airmail stamp.

According to the site, the stamp was produced using an engraved die which was carried on-board the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969.

The stamp's designer, Paul Calle, had previously created the art for the 1967 U.S. stamp that honored the Gemini program.

CollectSPACE spoke with Calle and his son Chris, who designed the 1989 $2.40 Apollo 11 20th Anniversary Priority Mail stamp and jointly with his father, the $9.95 and 29 cent Express Mail stamps for the 1994 25th anniversary of the mission.

One of the questions they asked was, "It has been nearly a decade since the U.S. has issued a space exploration themed stamp. Why do you think this is?"

Their response...

"Like the collectors interested in space stamps, we are amazed that no recent stamps with a space theme have been issued. Space has always been a wonderful and popular topical to collect in philately and we would like to think the Postal Service would understand that fact and issue stamps with space themes on a regular basis."

To read the entire piece, click here.

Shown above, a First Man on the Moon First Day Cover with an original cachet signed by Paul Calle.