Question On Netherlands Colonies Postage Due Stamps

I've been transferring Netherlands colony stamps from Scott to Steiner pages. In the process I've found I had "mixed up" the early postage due stamps as they are all of the same type image. After studying the Scott Catalogue I came to the conclusion that the main difference was color.

It looks like the stamps from Antilles/Curacao are green, the Indies are red, Suriname/New Guinea are lilac, and the Netherlands are light blue.

Of course there are many varieties within each country, but from what I gather, getting the postage due stamps applied to the correct country begins with the stamp color.

Am I off base here, missing something, or ?

Thank you!

Just about. The colours are the clue. But Dutch Guyana (Suriname) and Dutch New Guinea are two different territories. Dutch New Guinea are red stamps, continuing the Dutch Indies colour. There are a few exceptions to these colours, but those of the same design differ in colour.

Issues of the early postage due stamps are further divided into 3 or 4 types, with sometimes significant value differences, but that may be further down the rabbit hole than you wish to go... The NVPH catalogue is the go-to resource for those types.

And we won't even go in to perforations... My Netherlands collection has a bunch of nearly empty pages of the dues.

They even share the same plate flaws.

There are a couple of exceptions/difficulties:

J1 (5ct brown) Netherlands vs J3(5ct ochre) Netherlands Indies. Note that they differ in perforation.

J71 (1g vermillion) Netherlands vs J42 (1g blue Netherlands Indies) Note that the colours are switched. Also J42 (1g salmon Netherlands Indies) quite similar to J71 Netherlands.

Jan

Thanks all!
I knew I was getting a bit over my head when I started working these. But, I've pretty well got them sorted - properly I hope.
Question......what is the NVPH ?

Thanks again!

NVPH is the name of the association that publishes the Netherlands & colonies specialized catalogue annually - Speciale Catalogus Postzegels van Nederland en Overzee Gibieden - which name is a mouthful, so the catalogue is usually just called the NVPH. In Dutch, a great resource for anyone interested in diving into those stamps.

~Greg

I would offer a couple of comments about the NVPH catalog. First, the Netherlands listings are MUCH more specialized than the listings for the Colonies. I know there have to be many more shades and papers than listed as there are virtually none noted, but it seems that the varieties are limited to perf varieties. This is the case at least for earlier 20th century stamps. Makes me wonder if Michel or Yvert have some specialized listings for Netherlands Colonies?

Second, given that the catalog is produced by the dealer's association in the Netherlands, pricing is much higher than Scott's. The differential between hinged and NH material is quite large, sometimes by a factor of 4x. This may be justified, I just don't have anything to compare to as Scott's has not offered pricing guidelines for most of the NH material for the Colonies. The good news is that dealers discount pretty heavily from NVPH guidelines, but I still feel that the catalog helps to bolster prices somewhat artificially.

I'm currently working through a lot of early Netherlands Antilles (Curacao) and agree with those comments. I've run across some pretty wide shade variation in the first issues not mentioned in NVPH. Michel and Yvert may have editions with more, but not that I've seen - I have both the Yvert & Michel classic specialized and they have less detail than NVPH - for both the colonies and Netherlands itself.

So far, didn't think the pricing was too off Scott for MH/used (around 30% higher, which is typical for European catalogues I find), but yes the MNH premium is steep. Perhaps the Dutch market is similar to the German, where not hinged carries a very high premium.

~Greg

I don't know of any catalogue that discusses colour varieties of Netherlands and colonies in great detail, particularly for the 20th century issues.

I found a few scattered references in "Manual of the Stamps of Netherlands, Netherlands Indies, Curacao and Surinam" by Schiller and de Kruyf (1940) and in "A Postal History of Curacao" by Julsen and Benders (1976). More than the NVPH catalogue, but not comprehensive.

Jan

I did a little more digging.

The 1965 edition of the NVPH catalogue does list a fair number of colour variants for the colonies, as does my 1936 (pre NVPH) catalogue.

Neither lists any colour variants for the first issue of Curacao, but the latter does contain the (translated) sentence: "The darker colours come from the first printing."

Jan

I agree that Netherlands collectors are similar to German collectors when it comes to NH. As far as shades and papers, Netherlands survived 2 world wars while maintaining and supplying their Colonies, so many printings must exist.

Thanks - the darker shades for first printing comment is helpful - fits with the stamps I have, as NVPH gives printing years for the various perfs of that issue.

>>>>>As far as shades and papers, Netherlands survived 2 world wars while maintaining and supplying their Colonies, so many printings must exist.<<<<<


Not really a totally correct statement. The Netherlands went only through WWII - In the first one their neutrality was more or less respected. In WWII they did not maintain stamp production very well - that is why different local printers and even the American Banknote Company were used.


Peter