Fonzie was supposed to be a cool character on 70s tv. He rode a motorcycle and wore a leather jacket. To emphasize how cool he was, there would be motorcycle jumps in the 70s style of Eival Kinevil. In a late season they had Fonzie jump a shark while water skiing. The country reacted strongly that Fonzie was no longer cool but had made himself silly. This matches putting holograms on stamps as New Zealand did in 1994. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist
My stamp is unused so I get to see the hologram in all its glory. You can’t because how could the 3 dimensional effect be photographed. If the stamp was mailed, the cancellation might well blot out the hologram. Further when the collector soaks the used stamp off the envelope, the hologram will be damaged. All a long way of saying that the designers were probably thinking more about wowing each other that interesting the stamp collector. Notice also that the moon landing anniversary being recognized has nothing to do with New Zealand.
Todays stamp is issue A388, a $1.50 stamp issued by New Zealand on July 20th, 1994. It was a single stamp issue remembering the first moon landing by the USA 25 years earlier. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2.25 unused.
Holograms were invented in 1960 as a way for a two dimensional image to have a three dimensional effect. A laser beam is split before projecting an image onto film so the image comes from two perspectives. This is indeed how it was done on the first stamps but now the effect can be achieved by computer software more recently. Holograms are very useful in securing currency and credit cards. If stamps required a small one in the corner to avoid fakes, my objections would drop away.
Austria was first with a stamp with a holographic image in 1988. Over 80 countries have now issued over 450 stamps with holograms. Most of the images are outer space themed. The fad seems to have peaked around the millennium. The stamps are obviously more expensive to print so usually show up on a special issues related to a stamp show. For example, the denomination on this stamp at $1.50 was over three times the going rate to mail a letter in New Zealand at the time, which was 45 cents.
Well my drink is empty and sorry if my take on this stuff annoyed you. Some collectors are quite excited about new technology being adopted to postage stamps. If I thought the hobby would be saved by involving children I might agree. A big push for kids to collect occurred around World War II. The biggest effect of this is many high end collectors use that war as a cut off date for their collections. It is my belief that the hobbies’ best chance is educated, well travelled mature men who find themselves under utilized by economic and family dislocations. These days many such people are of mixed background so there are often multiple places for whom they feel an affinity. My guess the best way to attract them to the hobby is to assume they are serious people. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.