<img alt=“Moon stamp” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/ScC76.jpg” width=“310” height=“386” hspace=10 border=0 align=right />

…nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

-Inscription on the James A. Farley post office in New York City, adapted from Herodotus

The Apollo 11 crew would deliver mail to the Moon, announced US Postmaster General Winton M. Blount on 9 July 1969. They would carry the die proof of the pictured 10-cent airmail stamp attached to an envelope and cancel it on the Moon.

When they returned, the US Postal Service would use the die to produce commemorative stamps. Of course, the hand-canceled “Moon Letter” would have to undergo quarantine, just like everything else from the mission, before it could go on public display. The stamp was designed in acrylic on board by Paul Calle with art direction from Stevan Dohanos, modeled by Robert J. Jones, and engraved by Edward R. Felver and Albert Saavedra.

Art: US Postal Museum

<img alt=“Moon stamp” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/ScC76.jpg” width=“310” height=“386” hspace=10 border=0 align=right />

…nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

-Inscription on the James A. Farley post office in New York City, adapted from Herodotus

The Apollo 11 crew would deliver mail to the Moon, announced US Postmaster General Winton M. Blount on 9 July 1969. They would carry the die proof of the pictured 10-cent airmail stamp attached to an envelope and cancel it on the Moon.

When they returned, the US Postal Service would use the die to produce commemorative stamps. Of course, the hand-canceled “Moon Letter” would have to undergo quarantine, just like everything else from the mission, before it could go on public display. The stamp was designed in acrylic on board by Paul Calle with art direction from Stevan Dohanos, modeled by Robert J. Jones, and engraved by Edward R. Felver and Albert Saavedra.

Art: US Postal Museum