Almost unnoticed by most Dutch collectors, the standard
Dutch definitive stamps with an abstract portrait of Queen Beatrix spawned a
large number of collectable varieties, booklets and less easily categorized
items.
The first of the stamps designed by Peter Struycken appeared
in 1981, but three major changes over the next 20 years or so changed the face
of Dutch definitive stamps forever. The first of these changes was a simple
change in design, from the original 1981 design (black design on a colored
background) to the so-called "inverted design" (colored design on a
white background), which first appeared in 1991. The second change was the
change in currency, from the Dutch Guilder to the Euro. The final and most
far-reaching change was a major change in the way stamps are produced and sold.
First issue:
uncomplicated stamps
Stamps in the original Struycken design showing an abstract
portrait of Queen Beatrix background were first issued in 1981, and over a
period of 10 years 16 different values appeared. The design was not universally
popular and was mocked as "the Queen Bee". The colors chosen were a
drab assembly of pastels, including no fewer than 6 shades of green and 4
shades of violet. The stamps were issued in sheets of 100, while 8 values
appeared as coil stamps (imperforate on two sides) and 2 values were issued in
stamp booklets (imperforate on one or two sides). A simple enough issue for the
collector. Perhaps it lulled collectors to sleep, leaving them unprepared for
what was to follow.
Second issue: the
"inverted" design
From 1991 to 2000, a total of 14 values in the
"inverted" design were issued. Again, 5 stamps were also issued as
coil stamps. But during the second half of the 1990s, the Dutch postal
authorities started issuing more and more self-adhesive stamps, and 5 values in
this set were also issued as self-adhesives, printed and sold in mini-sheetlets
of 5 stamps. The mini-sheetlets were a new phenomenon: a hybrid between a
sheetlet and a booklet. At the time these went more or less unnoticed as most
of the attention had gone to commemorative stamps which were being issued in sheetlets
of 10, to the horror of collectors. But during the 1990s, the way in which
stamps were sold changed. Counter sheets from which the required number of
stamps would be torn were vanishing. Stamps were sold to customers in
pre-packaged blocks (initially cut from regular sheets, later specially
printed), and the small mini-sheetlets of 5 filled the gap for those customers
for whom these pre-packaged blocks of 50 or 100 were far too large a purchase.
By the beginning of the new century, the old counter sheets of 100 had
practically disappeared.
The initial and somewhat experimental pre-packaged blocks
did spawn some interesting varieties. The stamp of 1 guilder was printed in
sheetlets of 25 for a planned "mailer" (as the pre-packaged products
were known), but the mailer never appeared and the small number of printed
sheets was quietly sold off. Two other values in the set (0.80 and 1.60) were
printed and sold in these sheets of 25, in mailers of 25 and 50 stamps.
The mini-sheetlets of self-adhesive stamps were printed by
Walsall Security Printers, and it was soon discovered that the WSP-printed
stamps differed from the original design as printed by Johan Enschedé: 3 of the
dots making up the portrait were missing. As a final complication, the self-adhesive
stamps were not popular with collectors who complained that the adhesive was
leaking out around the edges. The 5 self-adhesive stamps were also made
available to collectors in a special printing for which the backing paper was
die-cut all the way through.
Third issue: the
Euro-denominated stamps
After one stamp appeared in 2001 with the denomination both
in guilders and in Euro as a transitional measure (only as self-adhesive in
sheetlet of 5), the "inverted" design started appearing in Euro
denominations from 2002 onwards. No more counter sheets for the Euro stamps -
these were only issued as self-adhesive stamps in sheetlets of 5 (and, starting
in 2007, of 10).
The first 8 stamps to appear in 2002 still had the three
missing dots that the self-adhesive guilder-denominated stamps had also had. 3
values were issued in 2003 with a corrected portrait that restored the three
missing dots, but these inexplicably also had the text rearranged slightly so
they were easily identifiable. Later issues of new values had the restored
portrait and the old arrangement of text on the stamps. Again, many of these
stamps were also made available with the backing paper die-cut all the way
through.
By now, what should have been a modest definitive issue had
become a ripe field for specialization. The "official" NVPH catalog
was slow to realize all this but the 2008 edition included a full listing of
the various mailers, mini-sheetlets and other new phenomena for the first time.
Already, the earlier mailers are fetching high prices, as they were not
recognized as collectable varieties when they appeared, and a lot of Dutch
collectors are playing catch-up in a field of dizzying complexity. A first
handbook of these issues also appeared during 2007, while the (bilingual) website
of a philatelic journalist who was one of the first to understand the
complexity of these issues is an invaluable guide.
