About Collecting Naval Covers

by Steve Shay (USCS 10,821)

In 1908, Congress authorized post offices aboard ships and stations of the U.S. Navy. These post offices offer the same service as do post offices in cities and towns, and have identifiable postmarks. Around 1930, collectors began sending their own covers to U.S. Navy ships to be cancelled and returned. These envelopes or postcards that have been postmarked on and mailed from a navy ship are commonly referred to as naval covers. Also around this time, printed, stamped or hand drawn designs were added to naval covers. These designs, known as cachets, became popular. The cachet may be specific to a ship, an event, or may be generic in design. Collectors today continue to send covers to ships for servicing. Covers commemorating keel layings, launchings or ship commissionings are popular with collectors.

For the most part, naval covers are modestly priced and large collections can be formed with a relatively small monetary investment. Collectors who send envelopes to Navy ships for cancellation add to their collection for little more than the cost of a stamp for the cover and a stamp to mail it to the ship. Naval covers can be found for sale by some stamp dealers, dealers specializing in covers or postal history, and from online auction sites such as eBay. Some postmarks are more difficult to find, as are some ships or certain cachet designs, resulting in moderately to high priced covers.

Collectors often specialize in order to narrow their collecting range, while others will collect any and all naval covers. One popular way to build a collection is to collect covers with cachets, often specializing in cachets by a specific designer. Among the popular designers is Walter Crosby who serviced covers in the 1930s andl940s. His covers usually include a small photograph glued to the cover and a thermograph, raised design, cachet. Another popular designer, Morris Beck, produced over 1000 covers. Most often the covers commemorate launchings or commissionings but they also include space related events such as spacecraft recoveries. Today, cover cachets are often prepared using a home PC with an ink jet printer and are designed by numerous collectors. Modem covers without a cachet are collectible, but not as desirable, particularly from the period 1946 to present.