Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Embroidered and Lenticular stamps, AUSTRIA


Last week, I received another set of great postcards from my dear correspondence friend, Sarah. The postcards were sent from Austria. Sarah has been living in several countries throughout my acquaintance with her but now she's settling down in Austria.

Some of the postcards were from Germany, Ireland, and Spain. None from Austria though, only the stamps were. But those stamps were my most favorite part of all since Sarah used very LOVELY stamps for sending her mail, as usual.

The fist unique stamp is an EMBROIDERED stamp, showing a blue flower of Clusius gentian. Released on 19 September 2008, it is the second embroidered stamp released by Austrian Post. The first one, showing Edelweiss flower, was released in 2005. However, the very first embroidered stamp ever in the world was released by Swiss Post on 21 June 2000 showing St. Gallen embroidery.

The second unique stamp is a LENTICULAR stamp, picturing an advanced car in front of Technische Museum Wien in Austria. Using lenticular printing technique, the stamp allows us to see movement on the drawing as we view it on different angles. Wow….I thought this kind of thing only exist in colorful stickers or in my elementary school plastic ruler.

I guess both stamps are pretty unique since not all post offices have produced those kinds of stamps. I know Indonesia has not either. So, I feel so extremely lucky to receive them STAMPED on an envelope :)

Many thanks Sarah for this gorgeous stamps (and postcards too) !!!