In 1852 the Rijkstelegraaf, a national telegraphs company was established in response to the uncontrolled growth of private telegraph companies. Also, from 1 January 1852 the first Dutch stamps, issued from 27 December 1951, became valid for postage.
A set of four stamps issued on 28 June 1952 commemorated both centenaries. From 28 June until 6 July 1952, the Internationale Tentoonstelling Eeuwfeest Postzegels (ITEP, international exhibition centenary of postage stamps) was held in Utrecht. The stamps issued to celebrate the centenaries were printed in different colours and made available to visitors of the exhibition. An entrance ticket gave the right to purchase one set.
Only 205,700 sets of the exhibition stamps were printed. The number of ordinary stamps printed varies from 2,710,500 (20 cent) to 242,298,000 (2 cent).
Posted 02/11/2012 2:35 pm
