The Netherlands returns to “old-fashioned” cancellations

The steady decline of mail sent in the Netherlands has lead PostNL to a new “innovation”: the withdrawal of rubber stamps at postal service desks as of 1 January 2017. This does not affect regular mail, but only registered mail and parcels, which are almost always paid for at the desks or through a franking machine. Regular mail will still be cancelled through the sorting machines, but registered mail and parcels franked with stamps will have an old-fashioned cancellation “by a pen-stroke”, just like the mailmen of the 19th century used to do.