Nederland – Netherlands 1953 – 1971 'En Profil' (Queen Juliana)

Only four years after issuing the first permanent series of Queen Juliana, PTT replaced it with a new permanent series. The Queen had expressed her wish for a sober portrayal on stamps. Samuel (Sem) Louis Hartz depicted the Queen facing to the front, lending personality to the Queen, normally, lacking in portraits of the monarch. At the same time, he added regal stature to the portrait by depicting the Queen wearing pearl earrings and a collar. The photogravure process necessary for printing large quantities of stamps, however, at that time could not guarantee a constant quality in the details of the portrait.

Sem Hartz was commissioned with a new design for permanent stamps. In preparation for the new design, Sem Hartz studied photographs of a sculpted head under different lighting conditions against white and black backgrounds. For his final design, Sem Hartz used a retouched photograph of a sculpted head of the Queen under appropriate lighting conditions giving it a relieve appearance.

The design shows the Queen in profile without any regalia. Philatelists refer to this second permanent series of Queen Juliana's reign as the 'En profil' series. The impersonal sideways portrait contrasts with the personal facing portrait of the first permanent series of Queen Juliana and marks a return to the designs of earlier reigns. The depiction of the Queen in profile creates distance and lends regal appearance to the monarch that the portrait itself lacks.


'En profil' permanent series design

The portrait is placed over the value and country name. The 'low' value stamps have the value inscribed in C(ent). The high values from 1 guilder upwards have the value inscribed in 'GULDEN.' Fractions of cents and guilders both are printed as fractions. Sem Hartz also designed these typographical elements.

Johan Enschedé of Haarlem printed the stamps. It printed the stamps with denominations in cents in a small format in photogravure. It printed the stamps with denominations in guilders in a large format in intaglio.

Sheet stamps

Johan Enschedé of Haarlem printed all the stamps of the series. It printed the smaller stamps with face values in cents in photogravure, and the larger stamps with face values in guilders in intaglio.


1953 – 1967 Queen Juliana 'En profil' permanent series

In late 1953, PTT released the stamps with face values of 10c, 15c, 25c, 40c, 45c, 50c, and 75c. The 12c, 20c, 30c, 35c, 60c, and 1 gulden stamps followed in 1954. In 1955, it released the 2,50 gulden and 5 gulden stamps. The 85c appeared in 1956. The 70c and 10 gulden stamps followed in 1957, and the 37c, 62c, and 80c in 1958. The final three stamps appeared in 1963 (24c), 1965 (18c), and 1967 (95c).

Stamps with numbers on the back come from rolls of stamps.

'Gouda' stamp

On 27 August 1962, PTT issued three stamps from the current permanent series printed on fluorescent paper. These were the 12 cent of the 'En profil' design by Louis Hartz, and the 4 cent and 8 cent values of the contemporaneous 'Van Krimpen' design. The stamps had been printed for an experiment with a 'Mark II' facer-canceller machine. The machine was tested in the Gouda area between November 1962 and January 1963.


Luminescent 'Gouda' permanent series stamps

The 15, 20, 25, 30, and 50 cent 'En Profil' stamps and 6 cent 'Van Krimpen' stamp had also been printed on the same paper but were never issued. The executive director of the Posts who had to approve any stamp issue decided against the issue of these six stamps on fluorescent paper. It had been expected collectors would buy some two-thirds of the issued sets. He considered the fl. 1.70 for the complete set too high.

Gouda was chosen to conduct the test with the facer-canceller machine that used optical signals to recognise the postage stamps and face the item of mail so it would correctly be cancelled. The mid-sized town of Gouda was not too large for a test. It was a sufficiently 'confined' postal area. And Gouda was not situated too far from the town of Leidschendam where PTT had its laboratory from which the test was overseen. The size of the town was important to make it possible to flood the locality with the stamps used for the test.


'En profil' permanent series normal and fluorescent 'Gouda' stamp

The stamps were printed on fluorescent paper without watermark, produced in Germany. They luminesce bright yellow under ultra-violet light. The stamps can be identified by the luminescence and by the lack of a watermark.

A year's supply of all the stamps plus 500,000 sets to cater for philatelic demand were printed. The three issued stamps were those that had shown the highest demand in May 1962. There was high demand from philatelists. Many, probably, hoped to have their covers cancelled by the 'Mark II' facer-canceller. This, however, was not used until 8 November 1962.