Block World Championship Cycling 2012

In the "Novelties" in Newsletter 102 the issue of a Personalised Stamp Block on the occasion of the WC Cycling 2012 in Limburg has been announced. As ever we tried to find out who had taken the initiative to issue the item, and this time it seemed to be PostNL.
Short after sending the newsletter we received more information about this issue from our club member Bert Hulleman, to us as motorcycle enthusiasts mainly known from the motorcycle related books that he wrote and for which another club member, Jan Heese, supplied the pictures (Publisher Peters). He is the man behind the Nederlandse Sportliteratuur Uitgeverij (Dutch Sports Literature Publisher), a publishing company (Boektotaal) that is active in a large range of sports. A visit to his webshop (www.sportmediashop.nl) shows you literature on many sports.

But OK, the block WC Cycling.

On the stamps on the left the winner of the first WC in Limburg: Marcel Kint, in the center the offical logo for the WC 2012, and on the last stamp the World Champion Men 1979: Jan Raas. Nice stamps, but not important for us. No, we immediately look at the sheet margin where we see at the right a camera motorcycle. The block is sold in a set, consisting of 3 postcards and the stamp block.
The copyrights of the pictures are owned by Bert, and it was him who initiated the issue of this block. Just like we experienced ourselves when we investigated the possibility to issue such a block for the 25th anniversary of the MFN, PostNL wanted to sell a large part of the blocks under their own management. Therefore the announcement that PostNL was the issuer.
In the newsletter September 15th has been mentioned as data of issue, but Bert told that he delivered the first sets already at August 15th last year. Thus early cancellations are possible.
In 2013 the 100th Tour de France will start, and perhaps this will result in more motorcycle accompaniment on stamps. And maybe Bert will have part is this, we will see.

David Knight Coin

The Isle of man has already produced many great names in motoring, in car sports, motorcycle speed racing as well as motorcross. David Knight adds an Enduro Champion to this. This rider, who took the championship title to the island in the Irish Sea already 5 times (last time in 2010), has now been honoured with his "own" coin of 50 pence.

What I like most is a special presentation pack made with it, that also contains a tyre stud of the rider. This following the stamps combined with a piece of tarmac. The coin as such is a nice item, that you can obtain in a blister pack for £ 2.00. For the coin-with-stud-folder you have to pay £ 15.00.

Eastborn Eagles Speedway Smilers sheet

When you have this sheet in your collection, you may regard yourself to be a happy person. Of this Smilers (sticker) sheet in the Business Customised Stamp Sheets series only 100 pieces have been printed by Planet Printers in June 2010. 80 of them have been sent with the club magazine of the Speedway club.
In meantime this sheet has been denominated as most beautiful smilers sheet ever, and has risen in the price list to an unprecedented heigth of more than £ 500.

FDC's

The envelops below demonstrate that many Postal Administrations are not so very particular with FDC's. The first one is dated December 12th 1979, the second December 29th, while the actual date of issue was December 10th.

Timbre Port

The literal translation of Timbre Port is stamp carrier. A Timbre Port is a piece of paper, often in the shape of a stamp, where the actual stamp can be sticked on in a special box. In Switzerland, Belgium, occasionally in the Netherlands but especially in France this had been used in the years before World War 2 for advertisment or to add edifying or nationalistic texts to a neutral envelop.

Recently this habit has been revived by mainly French philatelic organizers, what resulted in a Timbre Port with a motorcycle police officer accompanying Adenauer and De Gaulle on their ride through Reims in 1962. It has been issued on the occasion of 50 years of reconcilation between France and Germany.

For this occasion also a special cancelation stamp and remembrance envelop have been issued, showing in the illustration the same procession but this time seen from the front.

Hans de Kloet

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