Stamping issues with border changes

On May 25, 2011, on the blog discussed the border correction that took place following the annexation of a piece of German territory by the Netherlands as 'reparations'. One of the villages located in the 'taken over' area was Süsterseel. This agricultural village was part of the municipality of Selfkant. From April 23, 1949, postal services at the Süsterseel post office were carried out by a Dutch postal official.New stamps were ordered from the Royal Mint in Utrecht. Unfortunately, the stamps delivered on August 11, 1949, proved to be incorrect, as the umlaut above the letter U was missing! The stamps were therefore rejected and new copies were ordered. Now the stamps were correct. The official, who was referred to as the station master of the post station, received three stamps on September 27, 1949: a date stamp, an office name stamp for stamping forms, and a double office name stamp (Süsterseel/Sittard) for the money order service. The post station belonged to the administrative district of the Sittard post office. Furthermore, he received a wax seal to seal, among other things, envelopes containing money or monetary papers.

In July 1958, the date stamp was rejected due to wear. However, the Royal Mint in Utrecht no longer supplied stamps. The production of the date stamps had been taken over by the Amsterdam stamp factory Numerofa. A new stamp was manufactured there on August 14, 1958. But here, too, a mistake was made. Once again, the umlaut on the letter U was missing. The impression of this faulty stamp was recorded in the stamp book on August 26, 1958, with a cross drawn through it. I have not been able to ascertain whether the faulty stamp was nevertheless used by the station master, but it is quite possible.

In Numerofa's stamp book, a note was placed in red pencil: 'error', and two dots were placed above the letter U.

On October 1, 1958, the correct Numerofa stamp was issued, and the worn stamp was received back that month by the Central Directorate of the PTT in The Hague. The new stamp remained in use for only five years, because on August 1, 1963, the Selfkant area was returned to the Federal Republic of Germany (after receipt of 280 million German Marks). The Dutch stamps were taken out of service and transferred to the then Post Museum in The Hague.