Nederland – Netherlands 2002 – 2012 Nikkels (Numbers)

Design

It was a tradition to have two current permanent series. One showed the effigy of the monarch, prepaying the basic postcard and higher rates together with one with a simple 'numbers' design prepaying the printed matters rate and to use in combination with the contemporary series with the effigy of the monarch.

The change-over from the national currency (gulden) to the common European currency (euro) warranted the issue of a series replacing the Crouwel design. The 'c' after the value can denote both a hundredth of a guilder and a hundredth of a euro. A euro cent, however, equalled 2.20371 old cents. Not the portrait of the monarch, but the typographic elements were the essence of the 'numbers' design. Consequently, a solution as used for the contemporary 'Struycken' stamps was no option.

PTT Post commissioned Walter Nikkels to design the new make-up stamps (bijplakzegels). Walter Nikkels is a typographer and a designer who won prices for his typographic work. He, already, had designed the 1977 and 1983 social welfare stamps (zomerzegels) and 1980 stamps celebrating the 35th. anniversary of the liberation for PTT.


'Nikkels' permanent series design

The design shows the numeral on the left of the stamp against a background of the repeated letters 'NL,' the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for 'Nederland.' The 'NL' in the bottom left corner of the stamp have a deeper appearance than the others. The country name on the right edge of the stamp balances the design. The small fount used for the country name result in the ISO code becoming the main design element that identifies the issuing country. The individual ISO codes are separated by small letters in a deep print – reversed out where it overlaps the numeral - that read 'eurocent.'

Self-adhesive stamps

The first issues of the stamps were self-adhesive stamps. Johan Enschedé of Haarlem printed the stamps in offset lithography in cards of five stamps. The stamps have simulated die-cut perforations.


'Nikkels' permanent series cards of self-adhesive stamps

PTT Post released the 12 eurocent stamp on 2 January 2002, the first business day after introduction of the common European currency. The 2 eurocent stamp followed on 28 January 2002. Johan Enschedé printed the stamps on ordinary paper that has neither a fluorescent, nor a phosphorescent reaction to uv light. The 12 eurocent stamp turns somewhat purple under a uv lamp. The red ink used for the 2 eurocent stamp appears to have some fluorescent agent mixed in.


'Nikkels' permanent series ordinary paper (lack of fluorescence)

Single stamps were available from the philatelic service. They, crudely, were cut from the cards, probably using scissors, damaging adjoining stamps.

Use of the stamps

For a short period of time after 31 December 2001, it was possible to pay in both the old national and new common European currencies. Although a somewhat longer period had been envisaged at first, the old coins and banknotes could be used until 27 January 2002. Stamps with a face value in the old national currency remained valid until 31 October 2013. One had to convert the value into the equivalent euro value by dividing by 2.20371 – as a rule of thumb, divide by two and subtract ten percent of the outcome – and round to the nearest euro cent.


'Nikkels' permanent series back of cards of self-adhesive stamps

The back of the backing paper for the 12 eurocent stamps were blank. That for the 2 eurocent stamps had an instruction for the use of the make-up values (bijplakzegels). Below are examples of two equivalents using either an old-currency stamp with the make-up values or a euro-denominated stamp.


'Nikkels' permanent series using a 60C 'Crouwel' and 12 eurocent 'Nikkels' to prepay the basic inland letter rate

The basic rate for the carriage of an inland letter became € 0.39. This equalled 60 old cents, being equivalent to 27 euro cents plus 12 euro cents.


'Nikkels' permanent series using a 1.60G 'Struycken' and two 2 eurocent 'Nikkels' to prepay the inland letter rate for the second weight step

The rate for the carriage of an inland letter in the second weight step became € 0.78, or twice that for the basic weight step. This equalled 1.60 old guilders, being equivalent to 73 euro cents plus two times 2 euro cents.

Some observations:
• My maths may be rusty. It appears either the people at PTT Post could not do their maths, or the lack of a 1 euro cent stamp made it acceptable to pay 77 instead of 78 cents.
• The rate for carriage of an inland postcard was raised from 60 cents to 70 cents in 1993. The 60 cents stamp became obsolete in 1993. In December 2001, the reduced rate for Christmas cards was 60 cents. PTT Post issued special Christmas stamps that had a dual currency imprint. The stamps could be used on Christmas cards sent without cover or in an open cover. The make-up value of 12 eurocent appears to have been intended for use with the Christmas stamp, after December 2001.
• No permanent series stamps covering either the € 0.54 rate to European countries or € 0.75 rate to other countries existed. PTT Post issued stamp books of five stamps of these values with attached 'priority' labels, on 28 January 2002. Arguably, at that time there no longer was a clear divide between permanent series and special series.
• The issue date for the 2 eurocent stamp that has the conversion table printed on the back of the card coincides with the first day only euro coins and banknotes could be used for cash payments in the Netherlands.

Gummed stamps – House of Questa

From 2 September 2002, PTT Post replaced the cards of five self-adhesive 2 eurocent stamps by a small sheet of traditionally gummed stamps. The House of Questa printed the small sheets of gummed stamps in gravure. Further values of 10 and 5 eurocent ensued on 26 November 2002, and 2 February 2003, respectively.


'Nikkels' permanent series printed by the House of Questa

The House of Questa printed the stamps on non-fluorescent paper. The stamps have a phosphor bar at left that show a yellow fluorescent reaction to ultraviolet light.


'Nikkels' permanent series phosphor bars (House of Questa)

House of Questa – sheetlets of 10 stamps

On 25 November 2003, together with the annual Christmas stamps, the 2 and 10 eurocent stamps printed by the House of Questa became available in the new standard format of sheets of 10 stamps.


'Nikkels' permanent series sheets of 10 stamps printed by the House of Questa

House of Questa – Distinguishing stamps from sheets of 5 and sheets of 10

The House of Questa printed all stamps in gravure on non-fluorescent paper with a yellow-fluorescing phosphor bar at left. It, however, is possible to distinguish between the stamps from sheets of five and those from sheets of ten stamps.

The stamps from the sheets of five stamps were printed from left to right. Those from the sheets of ten stamps were printed from bottom to top, or upright. The sheets were perforated with a rotary perforator. This had pins that lifted the paper from the printed side of the stamp and a rotating knife that sheared off the raised paper. This process leaves paper residue, or 'swarf' on the gummed side above or below the perforations, depending on the direction in which the paper passed through the perforator.

Stamps printed from left to right pass through the perforator with the right side first. Seen from the back, the swarf is visible to the right of the perforations on the lefthand side, that is the righthand side when viewed face up. Stamps printed upright will have the swarf above the bottom perforations as the stamp passes through the perforator from bottom to top.



'Nikkels' permanent series printed by the House of Questa 'swarf'

The direction of printing, also, can be determined from the directional flow of the ink droplets that make up the printed image. The (photo)gravure process uses a screen of small recesses that make up the image. The recesses hold ink that the press transfers onto the paper. The movement of the paper through the press causes a directional flow of the ink when it is transferred from the recesses onto the paper.

If the printing is sideways right as for the sheetlets of five stamps printed by the house of Questa, the ink droplets will flow from left to right. If it is upright as for the sheetlets of ten stamps, the ink droplets will flow from bottom to top.

Below images show the second 'N' at the bottom of 2 eurocent stamps. The top image shows the droplets on the right side of the vertical legs of the 'N' point right. This a stamp from a sheet of five stamps. The bottom image shows the same 'N' of a stamp from a sheet of ten stamps. For this stamp, the direction of printing is not as easy to determine as for the lefthand stamp. However, the droplets at the top of the left leg show the flow of ink towards the top of the stamp. This stamp was printed upright.



'Nikkels' permanent series (Questa) direction of printing for the 2 eurocent stamps

Looking closer at the screen of the letter 'N,' it is clear this is denser for the top stamp than for the bottom stamp. The two vertical legs show alternate rows of six and seven dots. On the bottom stamp there are eight dots.

Below are the corresponding images for the 10 eurocent stamps. The direction of printing is easier to determine for these two stamps. The remarks about the screen of the printing, also, is valid for this value.

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'Nikkels' permanent series (Questa) direction of printing for the 10 eurocent stamps

The House of Questa only printed the 5 eurocent stamps in sheets of five stamps. These have a sideways right direction of printing.

Johan Enschedé printings

On 25 November 2003, the owners of the House of Qiuesta, De La Rue, announced a restructuring of its stamp printing business. De La Rue had acquired the House of Questa a year earlier. The former premises of the House of Questa in Byfleet were closed.

In January 2005 sheets of the stamps in the design by Walter Nikkels printed by Johan Enschedé Stamp Security Printing of Haarlem appeared. In 2007 a new stamp in the same design with a face value of 3 eurocent was issued.


'Nikkels' permanent series stamps – Johan Enschedé Stamp Security Printing


The Johan Enschedé stamps differ from those printed by the House of Questa. Like the House of Questa, Johan Enschedé printed the stamps in gravure. The printing direction, however, reverted to 'sideways right.' This also means the swarf appears on the righthand side of the stamp when viewed from the front. Johan Enschedé applied an L-shaped phosphor tag to the stamps. This makes them easily distinguishable from the stamps printed by the House of Questa. The phosphor reacts yellow in varying degrees of brightness to ultraviolet light.


'Nikkels' permanent series phosphor tagging (Johan Enschedé Stamp Security Printing)

Johan Enschedé lithography printings

In 2012, the sheetlets of 10 stamps of 3, 5, and 12 eurocent appeared printed in lithography. Like the stamps printed in gravure, these were printed on paper without fluorescent property and had an L-shaped yellow phosphor tag covering the left and bottom of the stamp.


'Nikkels' permanent series stamps – Johan Enschedé Stamp Security Printing - Lithography

The difference is most notable in the solid numerals. The outlines of these numerals are ragged in the gravure printings.


'Nikkels' permanent series stamps – Johan Enschedé Stamp Security Printing - Gravure

They are almost sharp in the lithography printing.


'Nikkels' permanent series stamps – Johan Enschedé Stamp Security Printing - Lithography

These were the last of the numeral stamps that, together with stamps showing the effigy of the sovereign, made up the range of permanent stamps since 1876. On 30 April 2013, Queen Beatrix abdicated in favour of her elder son Willem Alexander. Permanent stamps of King Willem Alexander show the number of weight steps for which either the inland or international basic postage rate has been paid.