posted 01-19-2024 07:53 AM               

The first U.S. hologram postal issue was space flight related. It was first released as a 25-cent printed stamped envelope picturing a space shuttle- type vehicle docking to a futuristic earth orbiting space station. You can see its first day cover (two types) in the second panel display below with a first day postmark of Dec. 8, 1989, at Washington, D.C. Two more holographic envelopes followed with a 29- cent and 32-cent postal envelope stationery issues (note a few samples below).

My firm may had produced the first space cover hologram stamp usage for an actual "real" space crew launch. See the first panel presentation of a cut-out 25-cent hologram stamp used for the Space Shuttle Columbia launch on Mission STS-32 with a Jan. 9, 1990, hand postal cancel of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

I've included a few other hologram space-themed issues, many of which were produced by my own firm, while others were more commercial productions. With the added-on decal stickers as cachets along with including hologram cachets themselves, they make colorful and attractive designs. One of the standard-size covers by a German space stamp dealer even has a 3-space stamp combination with a hologram postage stamp by Canada, that country's first space hologram of a shuttle orbiting the globe.

But what exactly is a hologram. They are true 3-D images by the fact you can move your head while viewing the image and see it in a different perspective along with other viewing angles. Holograms were first possible when the laser was commercially available in the early 1960's and color holograms were becoming commonplace during the late 1980's.

A multi-hologram space stamp theme was the highlight at the World Stamp Expo in July 2000. The holographic stamps were the first U.S. holographic postage stamps apart from the prior postal government stationery envelopes mentioned in the first paragraph. I've included some covers of those beautiful hologram images of mostly high-value stamps on their first day issues at Anaheim, California. One of those hologram stamp releases at the international space expo (see panel above at bottom row) was of the first U.S. stamp with a circular shape, all space related!