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When they stepped out of the recovery helicopter onto the deck of the U.S.S. New Orleans the Apollo 14 crew were wearing dark blue jumpsuits with an embroidered mission patch attached.

The black and white photo KSC-71P-168 shows the patches fairly well (see detail above).

The patch worn by the crew ... but NOT the Crew Patch

The photographic evidence shows that the patch worn by the crew on their post-flight jump suits is almost certainly the regular AB Emblem mission patch, as shown on the right here.

Since this patch is commonly-available it is not considered by collectors to be a "crew" patch.

Luckily for collectors, there is another rare patch that can be considered as a "crew patch", as noted below.

The (Backup) Crew Patch

Since the regular AB Emblem patch worn by the crew is not rare it is not considered by collectors to be a "crew" patch. Instead collectors tend to focus on the patch that was produced specially for the backup crew, examples of which were hidden all over the spacecraft during the mission.

This patch is shown on the right. Note that the blue text below the Roadrunner is supposed to read "© 1971" "AB Emblem Corp".

Vintage examples of this patch are extremely scarce. Even the vintage souvenir versions with a silver border are fairly scarce and examples have sold recently for about $35-$75.

Later replica versions with the Road Runner outlined in red thread are not valuable. A modern replica of the original backup patch, complete with gold border, has recently appeared so collectors need to be wary of this.

Apollo 14 Mission Patch Gallery
Crew Patch AB Emblem Lion Brothers Other Manufacturers

See AB Emblem patch.

The AB Emblem patch is the design worn by the crew on their post-flight jumpsuits. [4.4"]

The Lion Brothers patch is slightly larger than the AB Emblem version and has much larger text. The outer gold area has distinctive radial threading and the astronaut pin symbol has white highlighting.
Examples of the Lion Brothers patch were carried aboard the flight as souvenirs. [4.7"]

At first glance this looks like an AB Emblem patch but in fact it is quite distinct. The border is merrowed (tail-less). The outer area is dark gold with vertical threading. The inner white border is thicker than the AB version. The inner area is richer blue and vertically-threaded and the 'rocket' trail is quite different on this version. [4.25"]

This patch looks rather similar to the Lion Brothers version, with a radially-patterned border and solid black shading on the moon, but the detail is more crude.

Backup Crew Patch AB Emblem Lion Brothers Other Manufacturers

This is the original gold border patch made especially by AB Emblem for the backup crew. [4" / 101mm]

This is the original vintage silver border souvenir version of the patch. [4" / 101mm]

This is a convincing modern replica version of the gold bordered patch. The clearest difference from the original is the distinctive blue edge to the shadow on the moon. [4" / 101mm]

This is the modern silver border souvenir version of the patch. Esily recognisable by the red outline on the Road Runner and the red shadow on the Earth. [4" / 101mm]

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