The seal of the future!
While leafing through some old issues of the Nederlandsch Maandblad voor Philatelie, volume 1931, I came across an advertisement for a stamp dealer in Amsterdam.
The stamp of the future! It concerned the 1 guilder airmail stamp of the Dutch East Indies featuring an image of Captain of Artillery and Captain-Pilot Ir. MP Pattist. The stamp was designed based on a drawing by Lieutenant-Pilot Gijsbertus de Kruijff van Dorssen. Has the prediction of the Amsterdam Stamp Trade come true?
The airmail stamp had been announced with much fanfare and was intended for use on the first postal flight from the Dutch East Indies to Australia. The proceeds from the sale of the stamps that were actually affixed to the mail items were destined for Pattist! One of the first personalized stamps? No guarantee agreement had been concluded between the PTT and the pilot, and therefore he was 'compensated' in this way. The airmail rate was set at 1 guilder per 20 grams. The aircraft was a three-engined Fokker of the Royal Netherlands East Indies AirlinesAccompanying Pattist as pilot were Messrs. JJ Moll of the KNILM and engineer S. Elleman. Mail for this flight could be sent along. If one had no contact in Australia, it was possible to address the letter to the Consul-General of the Netherlands in Sydney.
The airmail stamp was printed by Joh. Enschedé en Zonen in Haarlem using two-color gravure printing, but a proof print was also made in offset. The stamps were available in both the Dutch East Indies and the Netherlands. Mr. A.W. Brave of Amsterdam made his address available to collectors who wished to send letters from the Indies to Australia. The sale of the stamps began on April 1, 1931. In the Netherlands, 17.710 stamps were sold through the philatelist's desk (as it was called then) in Amsterdam, and 18.058 copies in the Dutch East Indies. Thus, a total of 35.768 1-guilder airmail stamps. The available print run in the Indies was 65.000 copies. In the Netherlands, 25.600 copies were available, for a total print run of 90.600 airmail stamps. The postal flight took place in conjunction with the air service from Amsterdam to Batavia on April 30, 1931. The flight from the Dutch East Indies took place from Batavia via Semarang, Surabaya, and Kupang to Melbourne. In the Netherlands, the standard Dutch date stamp was used to postmark the letters. In the Dutch East Indies, four different stamps were in use, also designed by De Kruijff van Dorssen.
The stamps bore the place names: Batavia-Centrum, Semarang, Soerabaja, and Koepang (on Timor). The sale of the stamp was discontinued on May 16, 1931, when the plane had departed from Koepang. And how much mail was taken along? From the Netherlands, that was 2.420 pieces of mail out of a total of 10.045 items destined for Australia, a total weight of just over 130 kilograms. But what about the prediction of the Amsterdamsche Postzegelhandel? If we look at the Special Catalogue of the N.V.P.H. We see that a mint copy has a catalogue value of 50 euros. An uncancelled copy (i.e., with an adhesive sticker) is 20 euros, just like a used stamp, also 20 euros. What interest would one guilder, deposited in a savings bank in May 1931, have yielded almost 77 years later? Catalogue value is not the market value (purchase and sale), but the return is still more than the savings including interest. A good or bad investment?
The stamp of the future! It concerned the 1 guilder airmail stamp of the Dutch East Indies featuring an image of Captain of Artillery and Captain-Pilot Ir. MP Pattist. The stamp was designed based on a drawing by Lieutenant-Pilot Gijsbertus de Kruijff van Dorssen. Has the prediction of the Amsterdam Stamp Trade come true?
The airmail stamp had been announced with much fanfare and was intended for use on the first postal flight from the Dutch East Indies to Australia. The proceeds from the sale of the stamps that were actually affixed to the mail items were destined for Pattist! One of the first personalized stamps? No guarantee agreement had been concluded between the PTT and the pilot, and therefore he was 'compensated' in this way. The airmail rate was set at 1 guilder per 20 grams. The aircraft was a three-engined Fokker of the Royal Netherlands East Indies AirlinesAccompanying Pattist as pilot were Messrs. JJ Moll of the KNILM and engineer S. Elleman. Mail for this flight could be sent along. If one had no contact in Australia, it was possible to address the letter to the Consul-General of the Netherlands in Sydney.
The airmail stamp was printed by Joh. Enschedé en Zonen in Haarlem using two-color gravure printing, but a proof print was also made in offset. The stamps were available in both the Dutch East Indies and the Netherlands. Mr. A.W. Brave of Amsterdam made his address available to collectors who wished to send letters from the Indies to Australia. The sale of the stamps began on April 1, 1931. In the Netherlands, 17.710 stamps were sold through the philatelist's desk (as it was called then) in Amsterdam, and 18.058 copies in the Dutch East Indies. Thus, a total of 35.768 1-guilder airmail stamps. The available print run in the Indies was 65.000 copies. In the Netherlands, 25.600 copies were available, for a total print run of 90.600 airmail stamps. The postal flight took place in conjunction with the air service from Amsterdam to Batavia on April 30, 1931. The flight from the Dutch East Indies took place from Batavia via Semarang, Surabaya, and Kupang to Melbourne. In the Netherlands, the standard Dutch date stamp was used to postmark the letters. In the Dutch East Indies, four different stamps were in use, also designed by De Kruijff van Dorssen.
The stamps bore the place names: Batavia-Centrum, Semarang, Soerabaja, and Koepang (on Timor). The sale of the stamp was discontinued on May 16, 1931, when the plane had departed from Koepang. And how much mail was taken along? From the Netherlands, that was 2.420 pieces of mail out of a total of 10.045 items destined for Australia, a total weight of just over 130 kilograms. But what about the prediction of the Amsterdamsche Postzegelhandel? If we look at the Special Catalogue of the N.V.P.H. We see that a mint copy has a catalogue value of 50 euros. An uncancelled copy (i.e., with an adhesive sticker) is 20 euros, just like a used stamp, also 20 euros. What interest would one guilder, deposited in a savings bank in May 1931, have yielded almost 77 years later? Catalogue value is not the market value (purchase and sale), but the return is still more than the savings including interest. A good or bad investment? 
I find the story behind the stamp (as described here) much more valuable than the catalogue value, quite apart from the fact that the catalogue value offers no certainty whatsoever. (When selling (to the trade or at an auction), you should nowadays be happy with 10% of that price.)
1 guilder at 4% compounded interest over 77 years comes to 20.49 guilders 😉