Rocket Mail

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   This is a useful information sheet from Doc's Local Post which I think makes a good introduction to the subject of Rocket Mail. I have some covers and Cinderellas which I will post subsequently.
Rocket Mail by Spicer57, on Flickr

Here is the story expanded to a more readable size:

Rocket Mail by Spicer57, on Flickr

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Daniel Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Unhinged Joined: 30 March 2010 Location: Twickenham Status: Offline Points: 982	Post Options Post Reply Quote Daniel Report Post Quote Reply Topic: Rocket Mail Posted: 27 December 2017 at 16:15
	This is a useful information sheet from Doc's Local Post which I think makes a good introduction to the subject of Rocket Mail. I have some covers and Cinderellas which I will post subsequently. Rocket Mail by Spicer57, on Flickr Here is the story expanded to a more readable size: Rocket Mail by Spicer57, on Flickr

Daniel Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Unhinged Joined: 30 March 2010 Location: Twickenham Status: Offline Points: 982	Post Options Post Reply Quote Daniel Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 08 August 2020 at 10:56
	Starting with one of the most famous rocketeers, Gerhard Zucker. Not the greatest but achieved both fame and infamy. This is a good batch of Gerhard Zucker's earliest rocket mail stamps from 1933 in a variety of colours both perforated and imperforate. Produced for a cancelled flight in Duhen, Germany. Flights took place on 31st August 1933 in Hasselfelde and in Stiege on 4th November 1933. Scan_20200807 by Daniel, on Flickr A couple of covers from 1933 sold as souvenirs but not flown (this display page was not written by me). Almost all flown covers from this era are expensive to very expensive, In themselves, the stamps are interesting and more affordable as many collectors seek only flown covers. I've picked up some nice stamp rarities this way. Scan_20200807 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr

Daniel Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Unhinged Joined: 30 March 2010 Location: Twickenham Status: Offline Points: 982	Post Options Post Reply Quote Daniel Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 08 August 2020 at 11:02
	This is the second lot of Gerhard Zucker's rocket mail stamps from later in 1933. For these, as with the previous stamps shown above, Zucker used printers Meisenbach, Fiffarth & Co. in Berlin. They depict a rocket in front of Ursa Minor with the Pole Star. He would also ensure there there were limited edition rarities, in this case with switched values. The top two blocks are half sheets, below are singles with lighter shades, the next part sheet has one of the switched values. Finally, an unflown souvenir cover. Flights took place on 6th and 10th November 1933 from Stiege. Scan_20200807 (5) by Daniel, on Flickr This next lot show a different format which was a puzzle to me at first until I came across the cover at the bottom. These sheets are little known and rare. next to the red sheet is another rare switched value (in red) and imperforate. Again, the cover was a souvenir item only and not flown, it shows that the sheet was perforated and cut into 4. Zucker seemed to like multiple products for each flight. Scan_20200807 (6) by Daniel, on Flickr

Daniel Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Unhinged Joined: 30 March 2010 Location: Twickenham Status: Offline Points: 982	Post Options Post Reply Quote Daniel Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 08 August 2020 at 11:10
	At some point in 1933 Gerhard Zucker gave a presentation with a 13 foot rocket to a crowd of Nazi officials claiming his rocket to be 'the largest rocket ever built'. In a photograph that Zucker would use in his next rocket mail flight, Zucker can be seen gesturing towards his rocket lying on a carriage and in the background can be seen a lineup of jack-booted Brown-shirts. Zucker was seeking backing for his alternative bomb carrier. This picture is shown here as a flown postcard on this next rocket mail flight on 28th January 1934: Scan_20200617 by Daniel, on Flickr For this particular flight, at Hextanplatz, Zucker was promoting the National Socialist German Workers' Party Winter Relief Fund. Three new stamps were produced on honeycomb watermarked paper by Duvel in Hamburg. They were the 1/2 mark in red-brown, 1 mark in olive green and 3 mark in silver. This is the other of the above postcard: Scan_20200617 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr Here are the stamps as a perforated set, the reverse showing the noneycomb watermark and imperforate pairs: Scan_20200808 by Daniel, on Flickr There were also very limited edition colour variant stamps produced for covers and these, and other, unwatermarked colour variants which were either sold at the time as souvenirs or produced much later: Scan_20200808 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr

StampHinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Registered Joined: 04 June 2020 Location: Norman, OK, USA Status: Offline Points: 29	Post Options Post Reply Quote StampHinger Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 10 August 2020 at 08:05
	While I am not a collector of Rocket Mail, I acquired the cover below for my variant airmail border collection, i.e. the red and blue rockets in-flight along the left and bottom edges. The cover has the added collecting point of two different cinderella stamps commemorating Austrian rocket science researcher Friedrich Schmiedl, which makes the cover appropriate for this thread. Don StampHinger

Daniel Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Unhinged Joined: 30 March 2010 Location: Twickenham Status: Offline Points: 982	Post Options Post Reply Quote Daniel Report Post Quote Reply Posted: 26 January 2021 at 08:36
	Here are a couple of nice recent additions to my Gerhard Zucker collection. Firstly, some rare proofs/specimens of his early rocket mail stamps from 1933. Followed by a flown and signed postcard for the 1934 Winter Relief Fund sent through the German postal system. Shown back and front. {It was the convention with Rocket Mail that flown covers be posted through the mail, although this wasn't the case with the postcard shown previously for the Winter Relief Fund, both of these cards were flown on the rocket flight at Thale on 28th January 1934.} Scan_20201124 (3) by Daniel, on Flickr