Canada Post Honours Habs
Sept 23, 2009 11:42:39 GMT -5
Post by franko on Sept 23, 2009 11:42:39 GMT -5
OTTAWA — In the sports world, "mailing in" a performance — sort of what the Montreal Canadiens did during their lacklustre four-game loss to Boston in last spring's NHL playoffs — is usually nothing to, um, write home about.
Canada Post plans to help the Habs change that perception.
To mark the team's 100th anniversary, the post office will issue for the first time a set of commemorative stamps containing actual moving images of the historic 500th goals of three of the team's biggest legends.
Using archival footage blended with sophisticated lens technology, the stamps feature two- to three-second clips that showing Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur scoring their landmark goals.
When the ultrathin plastic stamp is moved up and down or side to side, it provides the illusion of cinema-like movement.
Richard can be seen shooting the puck into the net and leaping with joy into Beliveau's arms. Beliveau is seen deftly sliding the puck into the corner of the goal, while Lafleur rifles a shot into the goal before heading to the players' bench for congratulations.
The stamps will be officially released Oct. 17 at a ceremony in Montreal that Canada Post officials hope will be attended by Beliveau, Lafleur and the family of Richard, who died in 2000.
The post office has been waiting for several years for the right occasion to use the technology, said Jim Phillips, Canada Post's director of stamp services.
"What could be better than a special anniversary for Canada's most successful sports team?" he said. "We expect the stamps to be very popular."
A souvenir sheet containing the three motion stamps as well as eight stamps that alternate between two images depicting Canadiens' retired sweaters will sell for $9. Canada Post will print 375,000 of the sheets.
The post office will also issue six million regular 54-cent stamps featuring the Canadiens' logo taken from one of Richard's game-worn woollen sweaters. And it will offer "first-day covers" — envelopes on which postage stamps have been cancelled on their first day of issue — featuring the names of all 761 players who have suited up with the Habs since 1909.
link, with some pix
Canada Post plans to help the Habs change that perception.
To mark the team's 100th anniversary, the post office will issue for the first time a set of commemorative stamps containing actual moving images of the historic 500th goals of three of the team's biggest legends.
Using archival footage blended with sophisticated lens technology, the stamps feature two- to three-second clips that showing Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur scoring their landmark goals.
When the ultrathin plastic stamp is moved up and down or side to side, it provides the illusion of cinema-like movement.
Richard can be seen shooting the puck into the net and leaping with joy into Beliveau's arms. Beliveau is seen deftly sliding the puck into the corner of the goal, while Lafleur rifles a shot into the goal before heading to the players' bench for congratulations.
The stamps will be officially released Oct. 17 at a ceremony in Montreal that Canada Post officials hope will be attended by Beliveau, Lafleur and the family of Richard, who died in 2000.
The post office has been waiting for several years for the right occasion to use the technology, said Jim Phillips, Canada Post's director of stamp services.
"What could be better than a special anniversary for Canada's most successful sports team?" he said. "We expect the stamps to be very popular."
A souvenir sheet containing the three motion stamps as well as eight stamps that alternate between two images depicting Canadiens' retired sweaters will sell for $9. Canada Post will print 375,000 of the sheets.
The post office will also issue six million regular 54-cent stamps featuring the Canadiens' logo taken from one of Richard's game-worn woollen sweaters. And it will offer "first-day covers" — envelopes on which postage stamps have been cancelled on their first day of issue — featuring the names of all 761 players who have suited up with the Habs since 1909.
link, with some pix
