COVER N. 624 - NETHERLANDS  

Postmark: Post NL - Voorschoten - 25.07.2025

Posted on the 25th July; Received on the 3rd August 2025

_________________________________________________________________________________

We all know were babies come from, right? And Yes, it is high time someone should honour the relentless baby carriers that for ages have ensured the continuation of our species. 

Muito obrigado, Eric!... But... quintuplets... I am not sure I have the stamina to handle it.... after all my two girls were enough of a chore... ;-)

The 5 self-adhesive 0,39 €/85 ct stamp booklet on the cover was issued by PTT POST, now Post NL on  02JUL2021.

I do believe that these are stamps that several postal administrations every once in a while issue that are meant to be used in special occasions, like the birth of a new child, a wedding or any other social relevant occasion.

The 0.02 € postage make-up stamp was issued on 02-09-2002 while the 0.03 € was issued on 11DEC2006.

As so often unfortunately happens with Dutch postmarks, the place of posting is illegible.

Update:

Again Eric comes to the rescue: The place of posting was Voorschoten, a town in the province of West Holland, with a population of 25,650, close to the Hague, which Eric says  is very beautiful, somethng I totally believe.

COVER N. 557 - NETHERLANDS

Postmark: Zwolle

Posted on (?); Received on the 10th February 2025

_________________________________________________________________________________

Every once in a while I get a request to exchange covers from a fellow collector who happens to come across this little blog of mine.

This time the request came from the Netherlands and I was quite happy to receive this cover from Rohan, which also included a kind gift of stamps inside. The more so since I haven't been receiving much mail in this beginning of year and to hear again the sound of the metallic flap of my letterbox being dropped by my friend Mr. Postman, really feels me with joy.  Hartelijk dank, or better yet, Multe mulțumiri, Rohan!

Bonaire is a small island in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela, and part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 1636, following the Dutch conquest of Curacao from the Spanish in 1634.

In Bonaire, 209 confirmed bird species have been registered. On 02JAN2024,  PostNL issued a 10 tariff "1" Stamp minisheet dedicated to the birds of this particular Dutch possession. One of them featuring a photo of  a Red Caribbean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber), was used on the cover. Red flamingos inhabit the salty lakes of Bonair, Lake Goto having a population of 20,000 individuals of this beautiful member of the Phoenicopteridae family.

Willem-Alexander became King of the Netherlands, on 30 April 2013. that very same year PostNL started to issue yearly definitive issues with the effigy of the king, the stamps of these sets being distinguishable from each other by the faintly  imprinted year  that appears on the top corner of the stamp. The Tariff "1 International", of the 2024 set was also used on this cover.

The mechanical postmark was applied at Zwolle, a city of 120,000 inhabitants on the eastern side of the country.

POSTCARD N.105 - NETHERLANDS

Postcard sent on the 9th June, received on the 15th June 2023

Postcard image: Stamps and Postcrossing 
__________________________________________________________________________________

It has been a while since I posted a Postcrossing postcard here on my blog. This is mostly due to the fact that I haven't sent that many lately and also to some of the few I have sent having not reached the destination or, most likely, having not been registered by the recipients, something which is rather unpleasant for its consequences...

Luckily, some days ago I received a notification from a postcrosser that one of my postcards had been registered, and that meant I was on the circuit again, so all it took was to wait some days for Mr. Postman to drop a postcard into my letterbox.

So thanks a lot Becky, it felt good to get a postcard again!

Postcrossing needs no introduction amongst people who like to swap postcards and stamp fans. It is a simple yet safe and user friendly postcard swapping platform, and more that that, it is also a meeting place for postcard swappers and collectors, through the forum and blog associated with it.

Created in 2005 by fellow countryman Paulo Magalhães, the platform has today 804,000 + registered users and according to Wikipedia "by January 2023, 70 million registered postcards had been exchanged", what is a clear indicator of the volume of traffic generated ( and of its economic impact).

The impact of the platform is so effective that several postal services have already issued Postcrossing themed stamps. The Portuguese CTT, though,  have not yet contemplated  Postcrossing on their issue programme, what is strange, considering it all started here.... 

The stamp is part of a self-adhesive 5 stamp tariff 1 international (up to 20 g) booklet issued on 03JAN2014 themed on Dutch Icons. Other icons featured, besides the tulip, are windmills, bicycles, Dutch houses and milk cows. The milk cow stamp can be seen here.

 

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
__________________________________________________________________________________

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!

\

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.

POSTCARD N.72 - NETHERLANDS

Postcrossing postcard sent  the 4th April; received on the 11th April
Postcard image: Landmarks of Norg
____________________________________________________________________

According to Roelof, whom I thank for this nice card sent inside Cover #94, Norg is a small village in the North of the Netherlands, and although rural it lies close to some large cities, like Groningen, for instance.

According to Wikipedia, there are six communal pastures in Norg around which the city developed itself. A bit of searching over the internet and I was able to  identify most of the buildings on the postcard photos that encircle the central self-explanatory image of  cows and pastures. 

As such, right to left, we have the Noordenveld mill of the smock mill type, built in 1878. In modern times, this particular mill was subject to restoration works in 1990/91 and since then it has been grinding flour - mainly rye - for a local bakery. The mill can be visited on Saturdays.

St. Margareta Church, of the Dutch reformed Church. It dates back to the XIII century.

Typical thatched roof houses on a street.

A local restaurant ?

Dolmen D2.

COVER N.94 - NETHERLANDS

Postmark: Zwolle - 4APR22
Posted on the 4th April; received on the 11th April 2022
__________________________________________________________________________________

A rather ..Royal cover, landed on my letterbox today.  Although being a firm believer in the Republic, I of course have nothing against those  who still defend the monarchy as the best  political system for their countries, and I can understand people feeling attached to their royals  as a cultural and social trait, even if I wouldn’t trade my right to vote for the one who represents me rather than being  represented and the subject  of someone who inherits that  particular circumstance..anyway,  again stamps can further  thoughts, discussions, debate... not bad for a little square of printed paper, right?

Thank you so much Roelof, for a nice cover with several stamps on it and a nice postcard (#72) inside.

Stamps, let to right:

Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand, born in Utrech in 1967, married Maxima Cerruti, an Argentinian, born in Buenos Aires in 1971, on the 2nd february 2002. After the abdication of his mother, Queen Beatrix, William would be crowned King of the Dutch on April 2003.

 

The first two stamps are part of a minisheet of 2 rows of 5 0,39€ stamps celebrating the Royal family, issued on 23JUN2004, and they depict the Royal couple with their youngest of their three daughters, princess   Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria, the Princess of Orange, and heir to the throne, born on the 7th December 2003.

Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria, is also the subject of the souvenir sheet  with a single 0,39€ stamp issued on 16DEC2003, celebrating her birth.

The last stamp shows the National Monument in Amsterdam and was issued on 09AUG2005 as part of series called Mooi Neerland under which 10 0,39€ stamps were issued in 2005.

COVER N.50 - Netherlands

Postmark: Nieuwegein, 23OCT2021 
Posted on the 23rd October; received on the 9th November
__________________________________________________________________________________

A simple clean  envelope, with a well machine applied postmark on a rather plain stamp, and yet the overall result is aestetichally appealing and it will make a nice addition to my collection, now that I reach the 50 covers mark.

From a philatellic standpoint it might not be a great addittion, but the sheer pleasure of receiving a letter on a nice clean well organised envelope more than compensates for the plainliness of the cover.

Holland, the flat country, heaven for cyclists, is the country of origins and inside it carried a nice postacard (#47) from the city of Utrecht. 

The stamp is part of a self-adhesive 5 stamp tariff 1 international (up to 20 g) booklet issued on 03JAM2014 themed on Dutch Icons. other icons featured, besides the milk cow, are windmills, bycicles, dutch houses and tulips.

The clear machine applied cancellation indicates that the letter was posted in Nieuwegein, a town in the vicinity of the city of Utrecht.

POSTCARD N.39 -  Netherlands

Postcard dated of 27th October; received on the 2nd November
Postcard image: De Hoop, a gristmill in Hellevoettsluis
________________________________________________________________________________

Holland is well known for its Polder mills, yore used to pump water and thus ensure northern sea concquered dry land would remain ... well... dry. Still windmills were used for many other ends, making good use of the ever present and free energy of the wind, something that in later years would become a worldwide trend....

The mill at Heelevoetsluis, known as De Hoop (it seems this is a quite common name for mills in Holland) was a gristmill, that is a mill used for grinding cereal into flour. 

Thank you so much Gerdientje for the nice postcard, that came inside cover #47

COVER N.47 - Netherlands

Postmark: Rottterdam 25(?)21
Posted on the 25th October; received on the 2nd November
__________________________________________________________________________________

Netherlands. Another country to add to the collection, this time again thanks to a Postcrosser, who kindly sent me a postcard (#39) inside an envelope, with two very nice stamps on it (and some more inside). Thanks a lot Gerdientje.

The stamps used are part of a 10 tarif 1 (domestic up to 20g) stamp minisheet issued on 13SEP21 dedicated to Dutch Horse Breeds, and they occupie the 2nd and 3rd positions from the left on the bottom of the sheet.

The first stamp depicts a Gronionger named Legende. This is a Dutch developed breed meant mainly for working purposes but also used as a family horse according to this specialist site.

The second one, a Gelderlander named Hobyant. According to Wikipedia Gelderlanders are a  "Dutch  warmblood horse breed. It was bred in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands as a carriage horse capable also of farm work". 

The two breeds are also noteworthy because (still acording to Wikipedia) they were the foundation  breeds of the Dutch Warmblood or KWPN - Koninklijk Warmbloed Paardenstamboek Nederland (Royal Warmblood Studbook of the Netherlands).