Z1601

Space Station & Shuttle

First Hologram Stamp

Collins Cover Announcement 

WORLD EXPOSITION SET

From November 17, 1989 to December 3, 1989 a World Philatelic Exposition was held in Washington, D.C. During the wonderful and hectic two weeks, I practically lived in Washington as item after item was issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

A $3.60 imperforate souvenir sheet featuring four ninety-cent Abraham Lincoln stamps sets the stage for what I believe to be a unique set of FDCs. I produced four individually hand-painted cachets for these four 90-cent stamps with the pictorial Lincoln Memorial cancel which was only available at the Exposition on Day of Issue. My cachets show Lincoln as a boy, participating in the Douglas debates, with his generals during Civil War and in the Ford Theater at the time of his assassination. There is also a portrait cachet with the entire imperforate sheet on the cover.

In addition to the Lincoln stamps, there were souvenir sheets of Classic Mail Transportation issues and Future Space oriented mail Transportation stamps. Traditional modes of travel such as stagecoach, riverboat, bi-plane, motorcar, railroad, and ship are represented as well as rockets, jets, robots, and space stations of the future. Again, I did individual cachets as well as ones for the full souvenir sheets. On those covers I obtained great pictorial First Day postmarks including Space Shuttle, Aviation Day and Old West Day all of which were available on site only.

Rounding out the COLINS "EXPO" set are two beautiful glossy picture postcards of the White House and Jefferson Memorial, each with individual Washington, D.C. pictorial postmarks. The final piece is the first United States hologram which is a space topical. This important issue was on the last day of the Exposition -- December 3rd. The hand-painted cachet is superb as an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut rendezvous in space.

This set is offered at $11.50 per cover. Each has my custom "World EXPO" logo, identifying it as a part of this COLLINS set. Items S1601 thru Z1601.

Winter 2024 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 31 Z1601 — First U.S. Hologram stamp on long envelope (An image that appears to be three dimensional) — 12-3-89

This is an amazing Collins cover, and I invite you to consider all of the elements that combine to make this such an exciting first day cover. Since it is a number ten envelope, there was room to achieve all the components of orbital flight. The objective of this cachet was to show the linkage of the U.S. astronaut and the Russian cosmonaut. The hand painted cachet shows the two men greeting each other. To the lower right, the two space capsules are shown, and at upper edge, Mother Earth dominates.

Since this hologram was issued at the massive, U.S. Expo Stamp Show, I also created a customized Collins logo just for items issued there. The stamp has a fantastic day of issue pictorial first day of issue circular postmark and the usual Collins logo. The total visual impact of this cover achieves the "WOW" factor.