Maaslandpost

For most stamp collectors, private regional or city post services are a "No-Go area", but their stamps are a nice source of collection for others.
This also applies to the Motorcycle philatelist. Many regional posts have issued stamps with our theme in the images, and many of them want to have them in their collection.

Here we go back in time and look at the issue of the Dutch private post service Maaslandpost, on the occasion of the First Jubilee of the MFN.
Maaslandpost started in 1985 under the name "Stadspost Grave en Ravenstein" (city post Grave and Ravenstein, 2 villages in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands). In 1990 the name was changed to "Maaslandpost".
In 1992 the MFN existed for five years. To add some lustre to this happy event the idea was born to have our "own" stamp issued. Maaslandpost was chosen as the postal service to be chartered for this. The novelty organiser and treasurer of that time, Eric Mulder, was given this task, which he accomplished with verve. Our collection was almost doubled in one go with the stamps, which were produced in four different values on seven colors of paper by Mr. Blok (the owner of Maaslandpost). The images were produced in a black and silver print, probably by the default printing company used by Maaslandpost. And although we did wonder why all those colors were necessary, we all wanted to collect the entire series.

Although Maaslandpost thus had a default printing company for the production of its stamps, it looks like Maaslandpost produced these stamps themselves using a laser printer. The first edition was made in black, but that is not really a festive color for a First Lustrum. The black toner in the printer was replaced by a silver color drum, and the printing could go off.

Complete printing sheet of the 1st edition, with on top a series of different stamps

Sheets of 40 stamps were issued, with five different motorcycles and five bicycles (?) in the value 45 cents. In addition, sheets and non-perforated blocks of ten stamps with the composition mentioned (5 motorcycle stamps and 5 bicycle stamps), in the three values 50, 55 and 60 cents. So a total of 140 new motorcycle stamps for our stamp albums. Add to this the two different colours (black and silver version) and you have an increase in your amount of motorcycle stamps by almost 280 stamps on that date of issue.
This number becomes a lot more understandable when you know that Maaslandpost had seven addresses where mail could be given off. Mostly tobacconist's shops, and each point got its own colour stamps. That simplified the control of sales and/or dispatch. The values were respectively 45 ct for a card within the own delivery area, 50 ct for a national letter, and 55 ct and 60 ct for heavier mail.

The production of the stamps was not very consistent. For example, there are many different types of perforation of the same values and colours. Some sheets of 10 are not perforated at the top and bottom but only between the stamps, others only have a perforation at the top and a third variant only has a perforation at the bottom. Quite a search.

Now comes the punchline of the story: someone asked me which different types can be distinguished. No idea!! But… I am going to find out, was my answer. I am going to make a list of them and put them in a tick-off table. And look here:

Explanation:

papier kleur = paper colour: wit = white, geel = yellow, oranje/rood = orange to red, rood = red, groen = green, blauw = blue, oranje/geel = orange to yellow
drukkleur = print colour: zwart = black, zilver = silver
zegel = stamp, vel = sheet, blok = block/mini-sheet
[ ] = non-perforated at all, [b] = non-perforated on top, [o] = non-perforated on bottom

Especially for the Motor Philatelists Netherlands First Day Envelopes were also printed. The FDCs were given a serial number that can go up to number 350 (my highest number).

The MFN stamps were first issued in 1992, but due to the enormous stocks, various overprints were added to our stamps in 1995. The most common are the overprints intended for the stamps used for Christmas and New Year's mail.

Stamps with a higher original value were also provided with the imprint 45 ct, in order to reduce the stock.

The imprints can be found on all mentioned varieties of the Maaslandpost stamp sheets and blocks.

If you would like to expand your collection with Maaslandpost sheets, take a look at the MFN website under the button "Classified adds" for the items on offer.

Hans de Kloet

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