Why it is still allowed to use all old stamps in Belgium

The ministerial decree of July 11th 1962 states: "All stamps still in circulation on the date of July 11th 1962, as well as all stamps that will be issued after this date, have an enduring validity for stamping". This means that all stamps that have been issued after this date, irrespective whether they are in BEF (Belgian Francs), in EUR (euro's) or without value indication, are still valid today.

Postzegelservice.be is a company that uses this rule for offering postal labels. As registered stamp agent they make use of valid stamps from BPost (the Belgian Post) that satisfy the ministerial decree of July 11th 1962, to compose postal labels. This makes that one can find stamps with different value indications on these labels. And these can also contain motorcycle stamps:

In the Netherlands a comparable service has existed. But because according to PostNL (the Dutch Post) also forged stamps priced in Guldens (Dutch currency before the introduction of the euro) were used for this, PostNL has per November 1st 2013 declared Gulden stamps null and void.
In January 2018 the Court of Justice in Den Haag has laid down in appeal that PostNL had the right to do so. This means that use of Gulden stamps is not possible anymore in the Netherlands.

With special thanks to Ad van Tiel

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