[excerpted from the PostNL press release] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
World Post Day 2022

Issue: Dag van de Postzegel 2022 (World Post Day 2022)
Date of issue: 17 October 2022
Format: sheet with ten stamps in two different designs, marked ‘Nederland 1’ for mail up to and including 20 grams destined for delivery within the Netherlands
Item number: 421061
Design: Sandra Smulders, Vormgoed, Gouda
Source: Filatelie Informatief

The Dag van de Postzegel is an annual international event. It is not celebrated on the same day in all countries, although this is usually on the first Sunday after 9 October: the founding date of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). The UPU sets the rules for the international movement of mail between its member countries. PostNL will be highlighting the Dag van de Postzegel with the issue of a stamp sheet on Monday 17 October. Previous issues in the Dag van de Postzegel series often coincided with the POSTEX annual stamp show – an international event with swap meets, exhibitions and other special gatherings.

The Dag van de Postzegel 2022 issue will have the De Ruyter stamps of 1907 as its topic. The new stamp sheet has ten stamps in two different designs, with the denomination ‘Nederland 1’ for mail up to and including 20 grams destined for delivery within the Netherlands. PostNL is also issuing a stamp album and prestige stamp booklet. The prestige stamp booklet is the twelfth in the series about the history of the stamp in the Netherlands. The information featured in the prestige booklet about the De Ruyter stamps of 1907 was taken from a 1982 article by Gert Holstege in Filatelie Informatief. Filatelie Informatief is the predecessor of the Handboek Postwaarden (handbook for postal values) Nederland. This handbook has been published in instalments since 1994 and takes a scientific approach to the various stamp issues and the history of the postal service since 1850. A new publication on the issues of the De Ruyter postage stamps and postage certificates is currently being prepared for the Handboek Postwaarden. Just like the album and the booklet, the Dag van de Postzegel 2022 sheet was designed by Sandra Smulders from Gouda.

In the year 1907, a set of De Ruyter stamps were issued to mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of Michiel Adriaansz. de Ruyter (1607 – 1676), an admiral of the war fleet of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. The validity period of the De Ruyter stamps only ran from 23 March until 31 May 1907 and they could only be used on domestic mail. The stamps were issued in three equal designs with the postage values ½ cent (blue), 1 cent (red-violet) and 2½ cents (brick red).

The creation of the 1907 stamp design was not exactly a straightforward process. Initially, naval officer Willem Mouton made a pen drawing, derived from a print by Hendrik Bary after a painting of De Ruyter by Ferdinand Bol. To cut costs, the Post Office decided to use letterpress instead of intaglio printing. It turned out that Mouton’s pen drawing was not suitable for the corresponding savings bank stamp format. That is why printer Enschedé had a simplified drawing made as a basis for the wood engraving. The design and the execution of the De Ruyter stamps was met with considerable criticism by both philatelic magazines and the general press.

Due to the validity period of only a few months, post offices were left with large stocks of unsold De Ruyter stamps on 31 May 1907. After extensive consultation, the post office decided to overprint the remaining stamp sheets to turn them into postage stamps for internal use. Postage stamps were intended to recover postage from the addressee in the case of insufficiently franked postal items. After postage stamps were introduced by the post offices on 1 November 1907, it turned out that many collectors bought them at the counter. Post offices had been allowed to sell postage stamps to the public since 1870. At the end of 1907, stamp traders, too, tried to buy large quantities of these imprinted postage stamps for speculative reasons. This led to a lot of criticism, not only from philatelic magazines, but also from newspapers. For this reason, the post office decided to overprint additional De Ruyter stamps to turn them into postage stamps. As a result, some of the De Ruyter-printed postage stamps remained in use at the post office for years.

Design
The 2022 issue features ten stamps in two designs: a cut-out of an engraving with a portrait of Michiel Adriaansz. de Ruyter and a cut-out of a print showing a naval battle between the Dutch and English fleets. A fragment of the print of the naval battle continues onto the portrait stamp. To these original images, Smulders added graphical elements in the shape of wavy red and blue lines. On the portrait stamp, De Ruyter is on the right, on the naval battle stamp, the largest ship in the war fleet is on the left. Both stamps are interconnected by De Ruyter’s hair. In turn, the red hair is intertwined with the blue waves at the bottom of the stamps.

The bottom five stamps of the stamp sheet are rotated 180 degrees in relation to the top five stamps. As a result, the blue waves run in a long strip across the centre of the sheet, right onto the tabs on the left and right. The title of the issue is placed at the top of the stamp using a rubber-stamp font: horizontally on the portrait stamp, vertically on the naval battle stamp. For the country name Nederland, the direction is reversed in a handwriting font.

The original stamp designs:

Admiral Michiel Adriaansz. de Ruyter holding a command staff. Engraving created by Hendrik Bary between 1673 and 1707, after a painting by Ferdinand Bol from 1673. Source: Thijs Verbeek, Amsterdam

Four-Day Naval Battle between the State fleet led by Admiral Michiel de Ruyter and the English fleet led by Admiral George Monck, 11-14 June 1666. Print created by Petrus Johannes Schotel between 1848 and 1855. Source: Thijs Verbeek, Amsterdam

The Dag van de Postzegel 2022 sheet was designed by graphic designer Sandra Smulders from Gouda, who also was responsible for the 2021 and 2020 issues in the series. In this series, PostNL highlights special Dutch stamps from the past.

The original De Ruyter stamps were made up of many different pictorial elements that were not very coherent. For the new stamps, Smulders limited herself to a portrait of Admiral De Ruyter and a picture of a naval battle. ‘The portrait of De Ruyter is a reproduction of the same engraving by Hendrik Bary that would have been used in 1907 if intaglio printing had been chosen, ’ said Smulders. ‘The original image of the naval battle did not tie in with my concept. That is why I went in search of a better image with more detail. I found a print of the 1666 four-day naval battle between the Dutch and English fleets.

‘De Ruyter won the battle, by the way.’

While previous Dag van de Postzegel issues were printed in two colours, this is the first year that it will be printed in four colours. For the new stamps, Smulders chose the colours in which the historic De Ruyter stamps were printed.

The stamps are available, while stocks last, in Bruna shops and at the webshop. The stamps can also be ordered by phone from the Collect Club customer service on telephone number +31 (0)88 868 99 00. The validity period is indefinite.

Technical Details:
Stamp size: 40 x 30 mm
Sheet size: 122 x 170 mm
Paper: normal with phosphor print
Gum: gummed
Printing technique: offset
Printing colours: yellow, magenta, cyan and black
Print run: 73,000 sheets
Appearance: sheet of 10 stamps in 2 different designs
Design: Sandra Smulders, Gouda
Printing company: Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé B.V., Haarlem
Item number: 421061