For King and Country
This is the title of the block that has already been presented in the previous newsletter, issued by the Isle of Man on May 11th 2020.
The stamp of interest to us is in position 1 x 2 and shows the long procession of military vehicles during the invasion action Overlord, as recorded in the 2014 series titled "A Manxman's Journey". The 110 pence stamp shows a motorcycle orderly chugging along the column. Now of course many of you are thinking "Oh, but I already have that stamp". I don't think so!
The stamp issue from 2014
The block issue from 2020
The image is the same, but there are a few minor differences. The 2014 stamp was printed at BDT, a subsidiary of I.S.S.P. (Irish Security Stamp Printers). Although they still print stamps for the English colonies, they no longer work for Man or Ireland. So a different printer was sought for the K&C issue, and that became Cartor.
Cartor prints for many stamp-issuing entities, including the Isle of Man. In the status line at the bottom of the stamp, the name BDT has therefore been replaced by Cartor. Of course, the year is also different and thus on the 2020 version that year is printed. The last big difference is the perforation. The 2014 has a perforation of 14 teeth per two cm. The K&C stamp has one tooth less and therefore has 13 teeth per two cm.
Incidentally, the stamp has already been used a few years after issue on a commemorative envelope with the theme 75th anniversary DDay. Together with three other stamps from D-Day commemorative series, this same stamp was used on a limited edition envelope (500 pieces), bearing the signature of the soldier Hector Hugh McDonald Duff who was the model for the series "A Manxman's Journey" dated 2014. This envelope appeared on June 6th, 2019.
"We don't want to make it nicer, but we do want to make it more expensive!"
Or is that tax slogan different?
 The fact is that from 1st of July this year (2021), the import of articles, including stamps, from outside the EU will be taxed. While in past years imports up to an amount of € 22,- were exempt from customs clearance and VAT, from the first of July 2021 that exemption no longer applies. This means that orders with postal services located outside the EU, such as Great Britain, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and other non-EU countries, will also be taxed. And not only that, but PostNL will collect a handling fee for customs clearance per shipment. For shipments under € 150,- this is at least € 4,-. If you do not pay via the computer but at the post office, the amount is € 7,-. For shipments with a value higher than € 150,- the rate will be € 10 and € 13, respectively. Just to let you know.
Hungarian postal history
The Hungarian Post continues to issue its series of postal history stamps, which began in 2017. In the 2018 series, we found the Csonka Postal Motorcycle with the leather mailbox mounted on the back.
On the fifth of May 2021, five new stamps without denomination appeared. These new additions to the series were designed by the graphic artist Barnabás Baticz and produced by Pátria Printing House, in quantities that depend on demand.
The stamps of the annually issued Postal History series feature characteristic or unusual objects and implements of the postal service, that are typical for a particular period. The stamps are, as usual in this series, self-adhesive.
This year's series shows vehicles and artifacts from the period after the regime change, that are still in use today. Unfortunately no motorcycle, but two stamps that deserve a place in the album for most of us. These are an electrically assisted bicycle from 2019 (postage value: domestic) and an electric three-wheeled delivery vehicle à la Kyburz from 2018 (for domestic priority). Also in the series an illuminated post sign-board from 1993 (domestic registered), a 19t truck from 2019 (to Europe) and a letterbox from 2004 (valid for a shipment outside Europe).
On the First Day Cover is the well-known post logo and on the postmark a stylized drawing of the postal horn.
Hidden yet discovered
On October 21st 2020 the Czech Post issued a stamp booklet with ten B-value stamps, depicting the Aero 750 sport coupé car. Cars? Are we interested in that?? Well, on the cover of the booklet the Aero is depicted in a Race/sports setting with in the background a crowd of spectators. One of the spectators has brought his own seat in the form of a motorcycle (Harley??) with sidecar. The bike was well hidden, but with our joined eyes we discovered it anyway.
Route Nationale 7
For Parisians and residents of Ile-de-France, the N7 has long been the holiday route to the south. Also for us Dutch this route was/is the way to go to the beautiful centre and warm south. The road, once built by Napoleon Bonaparte, was part of the Route Napoleon named after him. Later, large parts of this route were diverted and the road was nicknamed "Route du Soleil" (road to the sun).
 Since the construction of the N77, the N7 is a brown route, a tourist road. Further south, the N77 follows the N7 and is still called N7. The highway was given the title Blue Road. An important holiday road, and therefore reason to pay attention to it. The French postal service (La Poste) does this by means of two carrier sheets (called Collectors) with each eight personalized stamps, which are thus semi-official because they are made by the post and are for sale to everyone at the post offices.
The whole consists of two carrier sheets that have the shape of the former poles with road numbers.
If I am not mistaking I see a few vehicles that fit in our collection.
On the first carrier sheet, on stamp 3 (bottom left, dedicated to Fontainebleau) a motorcyclist or moped rider is just visible behind the cars, and on stamp 7 (Col du Pin-Bouchain) two touring motorcyclists are shown.
Stamp 3
Stamp 7
Below the stamps on the sheet margin two people are riding packed and bagged on a scooter towards the sun.
On the second carrier sheet I think I can discover a Solex moped on the sheet margin and on the fifth stamp (Tourves) probably a motorcycle that is making a dangerous overtaking action between two cars. On stamp 8 (Menton) a scooter is parked in front of the building.
Stamp 5
Stamp 8
The Solex rider
On the backside of both carrier sheets there are another scooter and motorcycle:
Sale started on Saturday 19th of June 2021 in Paris at the "Carré d'artistes", where the first day postmark was also applied. The general sale started on Monday June 21st 2021 and they are on sale until Sunday October 31st 2021. They cost €17.28, which is a total of 16 domestic letters at the new rate as of June 21. 30,000 pieces of each "Collector" will be issued.
First day postmark
The rise of the PS
The rise of the Personalized Stamp (PS) is undeniable. Every self-respecting postal service offers these stamps that are provided with your own images. Not all as in the Netherlands, pontifically on the stamp itself, but as a tab, decorative label or illustrated sheet. It is often difficult to determine whether or not a stamp is a PS. The early images on Belgian PS's were still separated from the stamp by a perforation (and thus in fact a tab), but nowadays that is no longer always the case, and therefore confusing if you do not know this.
Recently a member sent me an image of a Malaysian sheet. The image was copied from the internet. The theme is "selamat hari raya aidilfitri", or the end of the Ramadan month. When I look at the stamp, I see the official logo of Pos Malaysia and the value of 60 Sen. So it looks pretty official.
After some research (by Google) it turned out to be a semi-official sheet of Pos Malaysia, made by a sister organization of it: Setem Ku (my seal).
And now???? In the collection? Or just ignore it as an "undesirable peripheral phenomenon"?
Okay, I think the image is funny and for the few cents that such a sheet costs, I put it in my album. But I can imagine that for many this is a "sheet too far".
Another recent find: large blocks with four stamps from the Indonesian post. At the top left is the logo of Pos Indonesia. Thus official?? On the stamp itself we find the logo of Prisma, the printer of the personal stamps from Pos Indonesia. Difficult to determine, so what to do with these sheets?
In mean time sheets with images of the motorcycle brands Bajaj, Hero (Indonesian Honda), Aprilia, Benelli, Bimota, Cagiva, Husqvarna, KTM, MV Agusta, Moto Guzzi, Suzuki, Yamaha and the Victory shown here have appeared. All with different background images. Every one of them is nice, but what should we do with it? Announce it officially, or just make a statement, like this message? If this phenomenon is going to occur even more often - many postal services already issue semi-official stamps of this kind (Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, you name it, and PostNL too) - will we still have room for that in our newsletter?
Hans de Kloet
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