Last-day envelope
Collecting first-day covers has been around for a very long time. Many thousands of collectors have collected these envelopes, mostly issued by the Dutch Association of Stamp Dealers. And these envelopes still appear with the issuance of new stamps. But last-day covers?
Only a handful of collectors seized the 'last day of validity' of a stamp or series of stamps to create a special envelope. Apparently, assembling and collecting them was not interesting. Not so for Mr. JFW Bunge from Nijmegen, who possessed an enormous collection of stamps and postal items. From June 1943 to July 1944, a series of stamps was issued during the occupation in the Second World War. Large print runs were produced of the series featuring so-called Germanic symbols and the Naval Heroes. These stamps remained valid for postage until a year after the liberation. The end of their validity for postage was set for May 31, 1946. Mr. Bunge decided to use a few stamps from the Naval Heroes series to frank an envelope for his agency and include it for a first flight on a KLM aircraft from Amsterdam via New York to Curaçao.
The transatlantic flight took place on June 6, 1946, aboard the KLM aircraft PH-TAS piloted by P. van Dijk. A total of 331 kg of mail was carried. The mail items were stamped with the image of a kotomisi (koto is a garment and misi means madam) with a child in her arms. The date in the stamp is the date of departure. The aircraft landed at Willemstad Airport on Curaçao on June 8, 1946.
The LDP phenomenon is not viewed that way here. In Germany, it suddenly became a high priority after the fall of the Wall. For a time, mixed franking was possible (GDR together with Bund or Berlin stamps), but that ended on a certain date. Then you saw a great many envelopes with Last Day Franking. In post-war Netherlands, people must have had other worries!
It is quite a tricky hobby with the validity period we are used to in our little country. And if that were to change sometime, would you have to send a package like the one we saw on November 13th?
Quite a nice piece of mail and a nice article.
That Bunge was very clever; he manages to combine a Last Day envelope with a First Flight envelope here. Clever piece of work!
For a while, and that is somewhat easier, I collected the last day of a post office.
Now this is no longer possible either, because there are no more post offices.
@Wilhelmus PostNL says there are as many as 2600 post offices in the Netherlands. We usually find nothing more than a small section of a counter somewhere in a shop, where, surrounded by orange color elements, someone has something to do with postal matters.
You often find the counter between the apples and the pears.
It's just that it's painted orange 😉
I would like to suggest doing something along these lines at the end of October 2013. This is specifically due to the fact that the Guilder stamps may then be used for the last time.
Have a special envelope made? Time is running short….
'@Jan Taco: frank your envelope with valid postage stamps of three Dutch heads of state, Juliana Regina, Beatrix Struycken, and Willem-Alexander. Mixed guilder and euro stamps, or thematically with stamps featuring images from the history of the royal house/family.
You can also send a package for €6,75 (or more for higher weight classes) and stick away an entire collection of royalties at once. Do insist on a neat postmark with a *legible* date at the postal counter.