Netherlands Railway Stamps

Netherlands Railway Stamps don't get much attention, but they have a lot to offer.

Early examples largely shared this general design:



The first ones were inscribed Nederlandsche Staatsspoorwegen in the bottom tablet. This one is inscribed Nederlandsche Spoorwegen, and I believe it is from the 1924 series. Other inscriptions, for other Dutch railways, also exist.

These were printed by Joh. Enschedé & Zonen, Haarlem, and this is the most-common value, by far. Almost all of the values are found in this color, and in red. This color was sold at railway stations, and the red versions were sold through other channels. One site says that usages for the red versions included private couriers; the site linked below says "other distribution and transport centres."

Hans Vink has a great site for these. Some old link sites have a broken link, so here is a current one:

http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/H.Vink/rwletstamps.htm

Any additional information or examples would be great.

Nest.

I must hunt.

I like the railway stamps but it's such a mystery to me.
Maybe someone can help me understand...

Were railway stamps sold at the counter of a railroad station?
Do they still sell them now or were railway stamps only from certain countries during a specific period of time?

Why buy railway stamps and not stamps at the Post Office?

I wonder if anyone has any photos of these mysterious railway stations!
Always intrigued...
SueStamps

Generally, the term "railway stamp" refers to two different kinds of stamps. The most common railway stamps were used to pay for parcels shipped on a rail line. The other railway stamps were used to show payment for a passenger's seat reservation. In this case, the stamp was attached to a receipt that showed the seat and car numbers on the specific train.

Suestamps, when I was a growing up lad in the fifties, my father had an electronics store in the Netherlands, somewhat like the Radio Shack. We had quite a lot of shipments to make and receive, and the railroad was by far the fastest way to ship. In Holland trains run, at least on the busier routes every 15 or 20 minutes. I would go to the railway station and ship a package. It would go out with the next train!
That would be a whole lot faster than the post office; their packages would go out just once a day! Of course, it had drawbacks. The shipper had to be close to a station, and so did the recipient.
As far as I know, railway stamps were still being sold in the Netherlands; I do not know how it goes in other countries. But at one time almost every country in Europe had railway stamps!

Peter

Providing updated link to Hans Vink's very informative site.

http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/H.Vink/index.html

This page also has useful explanation of their use from H. Vink

https://alphabetilately.org/TOC/parcels-7.html

I have always liked these stamps. As there was a question above as how these were used, here is an example.




This letter was sent 24 January 1928 from Eibergen to Enschede (about 30 km to the northeast in the eastern part of the Netherlands). It would have been given to the baggage department in Eibergen where the 10 cent railway stamp was affixed to the back of the envelope:




Note that the cover also had to have the correct postage attached (here 25 cents for the fourth weight class plus 10 cents for the express fee). All were cancelled with a railroad cancel. When it arrived in Enschede, it would have entered the mail stream (arrival cancel 24 January between 6 and 7 pm) and probably delivered that evening.

These letters needed to have the correct postage, even if they never were touched by the post office.

Jan

Interesting question to ponder is why the Scott catalogue lists Belgian railway & parcel post stamps. But does not list Dutch railway stamps.

A somewhat older thread, but the question in the last post was not answered.




Dutch railway stamps did not prepay carriage of mail beyond the carriage by train. The item of mail had to be franked sufficiently with ordinary ('postage') stamps. The railway stamp was added for the carriage to a station where the item was handed to the PTT.

In Belgium, the railways and the postal services had a contract that allowed a railway stamp to prepay the final-leg delivery by the postal service.

Dutch railway stamps were not 'postage' stamps. Belgium railway stamps were 'postage' stamps under certain conditions.

Michel also does not list Dutch railway stamps: for the same reason, I suppose.