Stamps with holes

Dutch flag Written in: Dutch • Cees Janssen •
stamps
Everyone knows what AKO stands for. It is the Algemene Kiosk Onderneming (General Kiosk Company). However, when this company was founded in 1878, the name was still Amsterdamsche Kiosk Onderneming. Today, the company has more than a hundred book and magazine shops throughout the country. They usually started with a branch at a railway station, where daily newspapers were also available for single-copy sales from 1899 onwards. But as a service, they also sold stamps to customers. One of the measures taken by many offices, companies, and enterprises against the theft or misuse of stamps from the 'boss's' stock was to punch a perforation in the shape of a letter or symbol into every stamp. This was also done by the AKO, which was located at Amsterdam Central Station. They started doing this early on, almost immediately after the company was founded. As a distinguishing feature, the letter K was punched into the stamps in the form of 12 holes. A very typical letter K with a long slanted line, meaning it actually had one hole too many. Or one hole too few at the bottom of the vertical line. But certainly very characteristic of the Amsterdam Kiosk. Amsterdam type 2 – Amsterdam type 3 – Rotterdam type 1 – Rotterdam type 2. The Rotterdam branch also received a perforation in the shape of the letter K. However, this one is different from that of Amsterdam. Later, other types were also put into use. It is easiest to recognize where the stamp was sold if a date stamp is printed on it. But we are not done yet, because NVGJ Krol & Co.'s Kunstmesthandel in Zwolle, Van Ditmars Courant Import in Rotterdam, and Kodak NV in The Hague also used perforations with the letter K!

13 comments

  2. Cees! I am glad that, even though everyone knows, you still mentioned what AKO was, because I really had no idea! Now I'm going to go sit in a small, dark corner and feel ashamed….

    To answer

  4. Cees,

    Bought 107/109 last week
    mint with a K
    Were these then as a series
    resold, or how should I interpret that?
    Thanks in advance for the effort.
    Greetings from Den Helder
    Cees van der Wel

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  5. Hello Cees!
    The NVPH stamps numbers 107, 108, and 109 only exist with the perforation K type 1 Amsterdam and type 1 Rotterdam. As described, the perforated stamps were sold individually to customers by the kiosks. It is therefore quite possible that a collector purchased the three stamps either in Amsterdam or in Rotterdam. This can be seen from the shape of the perforation (one extra hole at the bottom indicates Amsterdam).

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  6. Cees,
    May I make a remark regarding your story about company perforations, namely this: According to the Verhoeven catalogue of the Perfinclub (and that is surely an authority, I would say), the perforations you refer to as Amsterdam type 2 and Rotterdam type 1 and 2 do not originate from AKO, but from Van Ditmar Couranten Import in Rotterdam. The difference between AKO and Van Ditmar is clearly visible in the attachment of the diagonal strokes of the K.

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  10. Today I bought a beautiful, rare R7 with a DT stamp, or De Telegraaf. No damage, but rather confirmation of real use on a newspaper strap.

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