Sunday, 30 April 2017

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy in the northwestern part of Europe. The first postage stamps were issued in 1852. Since a few years stamps have a number that signifies the value: 1 for national letters up to 20 gr, 2 for national letters up to 50 gr and INTERNATIONAAL 1 for foreign letters up to 20 gr. Stamps in guilder values are no longer valid, but stamps in euros can still be used.

On 1 January 2017 PostNL abolished all datestamps in the country. The only way to get a stamp postmarked is just put your envelope in the letter box and send it through the normal mail. The philatelic service, now called Collect Club, sells cancelled stamps. These are stamped with a normal datestamp, so I sent an envelope to the Collect Club with a letter asking for a date stamp. Almost two weeks later I received my envelope and my letter back, not from Collect Club but from the Dutch Association of Stamp Dealers (NVPH) with a card saying they received my envelope from Collect Club and had no idea what to do with it. So I just put the envelope in the letter box and it came back the next day with a The Hague postmark.

Website of Collect Club (in Dutch only): shop.postnl.nl.

Date sent: 25 April 2017
Date postmark: 25 April 2017
Date received: 26 April 2017
Number of days: 1
Envelope in collection: 16




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