Jokes with stamps (part 1)

philately post stamps
CupIn the 70s, a new phenomenon emerged in the world of philately: the continuous stamp. Stamps had been issued before where the image flowed into the adjacent stamp, but never before had it been as clear as with the issue of the 'double cow'. You 2On July 30, 1974, a stamp was issued to commemorate the centenary of the association 'Het Nederlands Rundvee-Stamboek'. Many collectors purchased this new stamp bearing in mind that they would also need to include such a stamp as a single, loose stamp in their pre-printed album. To the surprise of many collectors, however, the stamp was included in the pre-printed album both as a single copy and as a pair. This made the three cows depicted on the double stamp into a single unit. A large number of collectors had not anticipated this, and the demand for the 'double cow' exceeded the supply, causing the price to skyrocket. That even ordinary users of the stamp as a means of postage did not particularly appreciate the cow stamps perforated in half is evident from the short clip above, in which the sender cut up two stamps in such a way that complete cows were depicted. The rate for a letter up to 20 grams was 40 cents between September 1, 1973, and September 1, 1974. The rate for printed matter was 25 cents at that time. Therefore, the sender affixed a 15-cent stamp to enable the 'printed matter stamp' to be used for franking his letter. That the Post accepted this on August 5, 1974, is evident from the fact that no 'postage' was levied due to the use of a 'damaged' stamp, which was therefore invalid for franking. A similar 'joke' was also pulled with the stamp issued on September 12, 1978, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Royal Military Academy in Breda. However, I do not know if anyone has cut up two stamps in the process to obtain a complete image of the epaulet and use this for postage. I have not yet been able to find a piece of mail on which it appears in that way. Have you? Or do you perhaps have other examples? Please let me know.

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