Dutch Queen Beatrix self-adhesives born and kicking!
Publicado: 09 Feb 2012 19:01
By 01.01.2002 the Euro would get introduced also for postage stamps in the Netherlands. But we had a half year trial period in which we would have all prices already in euro as well - next to the usual guilders! - the so-called dual currency!
By mid 2001 the first dual currency stamp was about to appear! The 85c/39c [0.85 guilders, 0.39 euro] with the portrait of queen Beatrix. These stamps were also the first Queen Beatrix to be printed by Walsall Security Printers, in Walsall UK! The designer of the Queen's head - Peter Struycken - had not been happy with the way JESSP in Haarlem had printed "his" stamps!
He was very keen on having the WSP people paying much more attention to the dots and to the colours! During the final inspection at WSP, Peter Struycken, Ferdy Sieben [Post Office official] and me were in Walsall. I saw the first trials of the 85c/39c and it never occurred to me then - it did not occur to neither of us!! - that some big mistake was made in preparing the cylinders for the Queen's head.... This was all due to the unproportional space of the value! Two dots of the head were left out of the design [it clashed with the value!] and the cylinders were prepared without these two dots!!!
The mistake was noticed by Struycken later on, but only when the first reprints had to be made in 2003, the damage got repaired!!!
So we have TWO types of the Queen's head here!
It was described by me in the Philatelie magazine, but our Stamp Dealers Association did not bother to list both types!
The NVPH is good for nothing since the mid 1990-ies. They have no idea about the technical aspects of stamp printing and they do not give a damn! In fact, the subsequent prints of their catalogues are not really worth buying anymore! Once in 5 years may suffice!
to be continued ...
By mid 2001 the first dual currency stamp was about to appear! The 85c/39c [0.85 guilders, 0.39 euro] with the portrait of queen Beatrix. These stamps were also the first Queen Beatrix to be printed by Walsall Security Printers, in Walsall UK! The designer of the Queen's head - Peter Struycken - had not been happy with the way JESSP in Haarlem had printed "his" stamps!
He was very keen on having the WSP people paying much more attention to the dots and to the colours! During the final inspection at WSP, Peter Struycken, Ferdy Sieben [Post Office official] and me were in Walsall. I saw the first trials of the 85c/39c and it never occurred to me then - it did not occur to neither of us!! - that some big mistake was made in preparing the cylinders for the Queen's head.... This was all due to the unproportional space of the value! Two dots of the head were left out of the design [it clashed with the value!] and the cylinders were prepared without these two dots!!!
The mistake was noticed by Struycken later on, but only when the first reprints had to be made in 2003, the damage got repaired!!!
So we have TWO types of the Queen's head here!
It was described by me in the Philatelie magazine, but our Stamp Dealers Association did not bother to list both types!
The NVPH is good for nothing since the mid 1990-ies. They have no idea about the technical aspects of stamp printing and they do not give a damn! In fact, the subsequent prints of their catalogues are not really worth buying anymore! Once in 5 years may suffice!
to be continued ...