[meteorite-list] Austria Will Issue Stamps with Meteorite Powder

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Mar 10 14:26:00 2006
Message-ID: <200603101900.k2AJ0TN02754_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=qw1141956181680A141

Starry stamps set to wow Austrians
iol (South Africa)
March 10, 2006

Vienna - Austria will get a little star dust when the Austrian Post
Office launches a stamp sprinkled with real meteorite powder, in a
"world premiere" on March 24.

Six hundred thousand copies of the stamp have been made so far. Each
stamp will contain 0.03g of star dust, the Austrian Post Office said on
Thursday.

"The powder comes from a 19kg meteorite found two years ago in Morocco
that we crushed through a special process," Post Office spokesperson
Michael Homola told reporters.

A collector bought the stony meteorite, also known as a chondrite, after
it was authenticated by Vienna's Natural History Museum, Homola said,
without explaining how much the operation cost.

"One thing is certain, we are the first in the world to incorporate real
meteorite powder in a postal stamp," the spokesperson said.

The Austrian Post Office, which in 2004 began diversifying its
collection of stamps, has offered an embroidered Edelweiss-shaped stamp
and another containing Swarovski crystal powder.

The company, which Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's government wants to
privatise by the end of the year, has said it has sold more than five
million "personalised" stamps since 2004.
Received on Fri 10 Mar 2006 02:00:28 PM PST