POSTCARD N.92 - NETHERLANDS

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 22nd November, received on the 29th November 2022

Postcard image: De Slufter - Nationaal Park Duinen van Texel
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A gull's eye view over a lagoon in De Slufter, a large salt marsh in between two sand dikes in the Island of Texel, the largest of the Frisian Islands in the North Sea, an important nesting area for some bird species given that most of the area is not of public access, although the southern part of the area is a popular spot for nature lovers

Thank you so much Willem. Really nice postcard, and great stamps too!

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Stamps, left to right

- Greeting stamps are a strange concept, I think, but I've seen them issued by several administrations, so they must sell well.

Anyway, on 01SEP2005, Post NL issued a three 0,39 € stamp set in souvenir sheet form under the slogan "Ik denk ann je" (I think of you) each with a balloon where one could write a message. The stamps were all of identical composition, although in differing colour schemes.

The strange thing is that the stamps were meant to be used until the 3rd December 2005, after which they would no longer be valid, Could it be that Willem included this stamp on the card because he knew I like stamps? If that's the case, I truly appreciated the gesture.

- On 06JUN2006, Post NL issued a souvenir sheet with 2X4 0,39€ stamps and 4 vignettes dedicated to the theme "Choice of the Netherlands". 

I can't make much of  this theme choice, but I suppose this means that  the persons and organisations chosen are well beloved in the Netherlands.

The stamp on my postcard is dedicated to Max Havelaar (1820-87), and confessing my ignorance, I'll quote directly from wikipedia: "Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin multa tulī, "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel Max Havelaar (1860), which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia). He is considered one of the Netherlands' greatest authors."

The other stamps on the set are dedicated to Elvis Presley, Freemasonry, the Dutch idiom, and the Muppets.... eclectic, to say the least....

- I, being a republican in the strict sense of the word,  although deeply respecting the choice of others,  feel that monarchies always capitalise on their monarchs as  consumer products. This is nowhere more evident than in the UK, but everywhere else a crown is worn, the faces of those who wear it and of their next of kin usually appear in a lot more than institutional portraits (and a good deal of times, nor for the best reasons...). 

Stamps, do qualify as "institutional" media. After all, the tradition of having one's monarch effigy on stamps dates back to the invention of the stamp itself, but one only needs to think about what has happened quite recently when Queen Elizabeth II passed away, with stamps being issued all over the world, (I even seem to remember having read about issues with errors in dates, so strong was the urge to cash in on the event) to feel that the borderline between institutional and strictly commercial is quite thin at times....

Anyway,  one of the grand events for monarchies is a royal wedding, and the Netherlands had one such moment in time when, on the 2nd February 2002, the Dutch King to be, Alexander Claus George Ferdinand, born in Utrech in 1967, married Maxima Cerruti, an Argentinian, born in Buenos Aires in 1971.

To mark the event Post NL issued on 01JAN2002 a souvenir sheet with two se-tenant 0,39€ stamps, of which one can bee seen on my postcard, featuring the side portraits of both bride and groom and the number 20 superimposed on them. The companion stamp featured the names of the soon to be newly weds with  the  numbers 02 also superimposed, so that when put alongside its partner, the legend 2002, the year of the wedding, would be apparent.

- A set of 10 stamps with congratulatory messages was issued by Post NL on 03SEP2001. One of these can be seen on my card, with the message "Gefiliciteerd" (Congratulations).

The Postmark indicates that the postcard was mailed from the city of Zwolle.