Stamp Day 2025 + overview 2009–2025

Starting today, the new Stamp Issue Day can be presented. Designer Sandra Smulders drew inspiration from the two Toorop stamps from 1923 and translated the theme of giving and receiving into a contemporary, streamlined design in blue and orange, with a print run of 6.000 sheets. Stamp Day 2025: giving hand – receiving hand Sandra Smulders has redesigned various elements from both Toorop stamps and arranged them in a contemporary design. The hands of the original Toorop stamp (blue) run across the stamp in a pattern from left to right. Hidden behind this is the giving man with a bowl, combined with stylized, fruit-bearing, and angularly executed plants (symbolizing wealth and life). On the other stamp is the woman from the orange stamp with bare and angular plants (symbolizing poverty and death). Both figures have been greatly simplified/abstracted and also made more pointed to better align with the shapes of the hand pattern. The original Toorop stamps are highly symbolic, built around the theme of giving and receiving with many striking details, including the shape of the giving and receiving hands. Smulders makes grateful use of this by presenting a shifting pattern of identical hands stacked on top of each other in blue and orange. On one of the lines in the pattern, the hands touch, after which they move apart again. Simultaneously with the shifting of the pattern, a lighter, less heavy color gradient is visible. Due to the slanted pattern, the blue giving hands dominate on one stamp and the orange receiving hands on the other. Striking are the similarities between the 'giving and receiving' of the DvP stamp images and that of Michelangelo's [1475 – 1564] fresco 'The Creation of Adam', in which God the Father (left) gives the divine spark of life to Adam's finger/hand (right) via his finger. In both images, there is a literal-figurative interpretation of meaning. Design facets 1) The angular character of both stamps has been counterbalanced by typography featuring closely spaced letters with beautiful curves (taking up little space). The year is positioned between the hands in the same rounded lettering style. 2) The mirroring of both stamps creates an attractive, unifying, and tension-filled zigzag line running from top to bottom across the stamp sheet. 3) A color gradient is also visible on the sheet margin, though darker, causing the stamps to naturally stand out and come to the foreground. 4) The hand pattern on the sheet margin extends across two stamps, creating a logical space for the title in the top left and the PostNL logo in the bottom right. 5) This issue alternately belongs to either the official issue or the framed stamp program. Stamp Day 2009 – 2024: look and compare By structuring all Stamp Days from 2009 onwards, you immediately discover similar and different versions of the stamps per issue. Since 2009, Stamp Day has been inspired by striking stamps from the past. It is noteworthy that the stamp is sometimes a reproduction of the original stamp, but sometimes also a varied and attractive adaptation of the stamps. 1) variants in stamp reproductions: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015. *2) fantasy variants: 2021 and 2024. 3) adaptations of stamps: 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Restoration and expansion of Stamp Issue Day 2022 An incorrect Michiel de Ruyter stamp was listed in the DvdP overview. The 2022 DvdP issue is based on the red 2½ cent MdR stamp of 1907 (nvph 89). The stamp is derived from the painting by the Amsterdam portrait painter Ferdinand Bol (1616 – 1680) depicting the Four Days' Battle in 1666, with a seascape in the background featuring De Ruyter's flagship 'De Zeven Provinciën'. Modifications of postage stamps By placing these eight creative adaptations of the DvP issues side by side with the original stamps, the attractiveness, variety, and ingenious execution / varied design of the issues immediately stand out. The 2025 DvP issue is top-notch in terms of design, making inventive use of details from the original stamps. Couple Ingmar and Carla Birza An interview regarding the 2019 DvP issues with the inventively creative Birza couple from Deventer took place in early May 2019. On August 1, Ingmar passed away at the age of 47 after a short and serious illness. Together, they played a very important role in designing numerous stamps over more than 20 years, including in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 using DvP sheets. Subsequently, Sandra Smulders took over the baton from the DvP with great verve in the years 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2025.