Netherlands - Lichtenvoorde - Achterhoek 2017 - 19-21 May 2017

During the weekend of 19 to 21 May 2017 a stamp show was held in the town of Lichtenvoorde to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Postzegelvereniging De Achterhoek (Stamp association De Achterhoek). I went there to buy stamps from the dealers that were present and to buy some German stamps directly from Deutsche Post that had a small stamp selling point there.

The show was held in the Hamaland sports, meeting, and recration facility. During the show a special postmark was used. I wanted to send myself an envelope with the special cancellation and the special personal stamp. The only problem was that all mail in the Netherlands is cancelled in large sorting machines. It is not possible to skip the wavy lines unless you are in the system. After long thinking I came up with the solution: a protective sleeve made out of a windowed envelope. The stamp remains visible and can be 'read' by the sorting machine while the wavy lines end up on the window and the envelope gets the machine code at the bottom, proof of really being in the post.

I had to wait a whole day to see if my trick worked and it did. From now on I could send envelopes with Dutch postmarks without any chance of stamp and postmark being destroyed by the postal process.

Date sent: 22 May 2017

Date postmark: 19 May 2017

Date received: 23 May 2017

Number of days: 1

Envelope in collection: 100