Presented here are examples of space event covers created and distributed by George H. Goldey (1923-1994) of Canton, Texas under the name Goldcraft Cachets.

The goal is to show a representative selection covering the basic style for each event and not an archive of each and every individual cover created for that event. In the future there may be a few cases where multiples of the same cover are shown for a given event. These instances will be examples showing variations in cancellation, return address, or the addition of other cachets. For events in 1958 and 1959 a Goldcraft Cachets album page (8.5" x 11") was created which included generic artwork at top, event cover in middle, and a short description of the event at bottom. These pages are certainly more scarce than the covers themselves as they appear much less frequently. A link to a photo of the album pages that are known to exist appears next to the cover image where applicable.

Below is an excerpt from an Astrophile article (Vol. 55, NO.2, Issue #313) written about George Goldey by Steve Durst, the full post can be found here.

George Goldey was a pioneer space cover maker, but he also proved he was quite an inventor. Living in Canton, Texas, he began making first day covers for stamps being issued by the U.S. Post Office Department in the mid 1950's, and Goldey made cachets for political events happening in Texas. Goldey had his peculiarities and often made covers about subjects with the word "gold" in them too. He also became fascinated with the U.S. space program and adamantly adopted it as his own, becoming a space cover cachet maker at the dawn of the U.S.' space program in 1958.

What I learned in talking to his family many years ago was that Goldey's space cover business was a family affair. He apparently did not keep a record of how many covers and versions he made, and he made his covers with a printing press he maintained at his house. The handwritting addressing his covers was that of his wife, who lovingly helped him on his space covers, and also his children, whom I believe also may have addressed the covers. Goldey also had an irascible side, and on one occasion known to the author, chased a group of space cover collectors off his property with a shotgun.

Goldey was a great space cover contributor at the dawn of the modern space age promoting and advancing space cover collecting. We, indeed owe George Goldey and his family a tremendous debt of gratitude.

Please email photos of other Goldcraft space event covers you've seen or events that I may have missed and I will add them to the archive.

Archive Status: ========================================= Known Events w/ Covers Are Listed 1958 - Events (12) + Album Pages (12) 1959 - Events (48) + Album Pages (27) 1960 - Events (130) w/ 2 images needed. 1961 - Events (138) w/ 12 images needed. ========================================= Event List Still In Process 1962 - Events currently listed (92) w/ 17 images needed. ========================================= First Day - Events listed (11).      Images Needed For: 05/05/1969 - #1371, Apollo 8 07/15/1975 - #1569-70, ASTP ========================================= 1963 to 1978 - In process of locating more images. =========================================

Example of insert cards from Goldcraft cover service.

QUICK LINKS:     Year-1958     Year-1959     Year-1960     Year-1961     Year-1962     First Day Covers