December stamps 2024

In recent years, the Personalised December stamps from the Dutch PostNL have always been self-adhesive stamps, not the "normal" gummed stamps. When I ordered the December Stamps for sending newsletter 150 (2024), I received self-adhesive stamps.

Some time later I received a December stamp made by Hans de Kloet.

When looking at it I noticed that this stamp was not self-adhesive, but rather a gummed stamp! And that while I knew for sure that I had no choice when I ordered the NB stamps. Hans was also surprised by the difference.

So we asked our Personal Stamp Oracle, Peter Oomes. The Association of Personal Stamp Collectors (VPPV) had also noticed that PostNL had switched from self-adhesive to gummed December stamps somewhere (early) in December. Asking PostNL yielded the following response:

Somewhere during the year, new semi-finished products were produced that were gummed. The printer of the personalised stamps used up the old stock of sheets (self-adhesive) and then switched to the new sheets (gummed). In the meantime, the application has also been adjusted for this and therefore says gummed now.
Because many personalised December stamps are also used by consumers for sending Christmas mail, there is a chance that PostNL will use self-adhesive sheets again next year for the production of personalised December stamps, but that will have to be determined by the Collectors Market department.

Indeed, at that time the stamp type had already been changed from self-adhesive to gummed on the PostNL ordering webpage (see image).

By comparing order numbers and the type of stamps delivered, the VPPV was able to determine that the transition took place for stamps ordered on December 3, 2024.

Paul Essens

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