National Geographic Magazine Specimen Cover with Hologram - Washington, D.C. 1984

Beautiful proof from the American Banknote Company made for National Geographic Magazine in 1984. This was the fist time a hologram was used for National Geographic. This item came out of the archives of the American Banknote Company and it is over 22 years old. This is the first time we have seen it for sale.

From March, 1984 to December, 1988 three National Geographic covers featured and promoted holography to many more people worldwide than any previous event. The holograms were created by Kenneth Haines and his team at American Banknote/Eidetic Images. (Haines was the founder of Eidetic Images, later purchased by American Banknote and was the first of many students to graduate from the University of Michigan while working under Emmett Leith, one of the fathers of holography.) Before the National Geographic cover only a few people had ever seen a hologram.

The first National Geographic cover hologram was an eagle, embossed on the cover of the March 1984 issue. But the eagle had already appeared on another much less publicized cover. The wife of the president of American Banknote, who was designing the ABN annual report, had provided the eagle and asked Ken to produce a hologram for that report cover to represent the company’s new product. The model was, unfortunately, almost an inch larger than could be accommodated by the largest embossing master of the day, requiring the wings to be broken and moved closer to the eagle's body. At some point the poor mutilated eagle appeared much less regal and the holographers began calling it their "chicken" model. The hologram was completed and became a great success, producing a very attractive cover.

Successful production of the March 1984 National Geographic holography cover represented a seminal event in the field of commercial holography