[from PostNL press release] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
Stamp Day 2023

“Dag van de Postzegel 2023”
Date of issue: 16 October 2023

Format: sheet with ten personal stamps in two different designs, with value 1 for post up to and including 20 grams for destinations within the Netherlands
Item number: 830063
Design: Sandra Smulders, Vormgoed, Gouda

Stamp Day is an annual international event. In most countries, the day is celebrated on the first Sunday after 9 October: the founding date of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). The UPU sets the rules for international postal traffic between member states.

The denomination on these stamps is ‘1’, the denomination for items weighing up to 20g destined for addresses within the Netherlands. The sheet of ten costs €10.10.

The sheet was designed by graphic designer Sandra Smulders from Gouda using the 1923 Artist Series stamps as inspiration. Those were the first modern stamps after architect Karel de Bazel’s 1913 Jubilee stamps. The 1923 Artist Series comprises four stamps in three designs, created by architect Michel de Klerk, typographer Sjoerd de Roos and graphic designer Nicolaas van de Vecht. Their designs were selected from the 90 entries to the Dutch Numerical Stamp Competition launched by the Staatsbedrijf der Posterijen en Telegrafie [‘Dutch State Post and Telegraph Company’] in 1920. All Dutch artists were allowed to enter the competition.

The idea behind the competition was that a competition involving many artists would produce a better result than if one designated artist designed the stamps. However, the philatelic press was not very receptive. Later, the stamps received greater appreciation. For example, art historian Paul Hefting wrote in an article in De Gids in 1993 that the design of the 1923 Artist Series is defined by a mixture of austere and ornate ornamental forms. The atmosphere expressed by these stamps is said to be of a “modern religious propriety” and of a “great seriousness that beauty then entailed”.

Each of the ten stamps featured on the Stamp Day 2023 sheet contains a half diamond: a triangle composed of 25 stacked rectangles with rounded corners. The image area of each half-diamond stamp joins the image area of the adjacent stamp where possible, separated by the fixed frame, to create the illusion of a complete diamond shape. The diamond motif is taken from the 4-cent stamp in the 1923 Artist Series. The numbers and letters in the title Stamp Day 2023 are placed in and against the rectangles on the new stamps. The background colour on the stamps and the selvage changes from green to blue, from top to bottom. Behind the diamond shape on the stamps is a line drawing of an apple and an apple tree changing from white to green. The drawing of the apple also returns in a different form on the left and right hand sides of the sheet edge.

Smulders has produced designs for Stamp Day since 2020. In preparation for this new assignment, she visited the National Archives in The Hague, which manages the largest, most important collection of postage values in the Netherlands. “At the time, it hadn’t been decided which historical stamps would inspire the new design,” Smulders says. “But I already knew that the 1923 Artist Series was a candidate. Seeing the original drawing for the 4-cent stamp from this series in the archives absolutely delighted me. It was a strong graphic design – especially for its era.”

Smulders says the original drawings for the 1923 stamps, which she was able to access, have much more detail than the stamps themselves, because printing technology then was fairly limited.

“When I was sketching, I noticed that the words ‘postzegel’ (stamp) and ‘Nederland’ (Netherlands) contain the same amount of letters,” she says. “This meant I could imitate the 1923 stamp by placing the letters of the new title in the diamond in the same way.”

“Graphically, I created two different designs, with a half diamond pointing up or down,” Smulders says. “But by applying slightly different gradients everywhere, I ensured that no two stamps are the same.”

The apple and apple tree designs come from the 1923 1- and 2-cent stamps, with elements from the 2½-cent issue.

In addition to the past three years’ Stamp Day stamps, Smulders also designed for PostNL the 2022 World Animal Day, the Back to the 20th Century and Trains & Journeys (2019) stamp series, the 2018 Children’s Welfare Stamps, the stamp series celebrating 50 years of the Daily Fable (2018) and the 25 years of Fokke & Sukke (2018) stamp series.

The validity period for these Stamp Day stamps is indefinite.

Technical Details:
Stamp size: 40 x 30mm (wxh)
Sheet size: 122 x 170mm (wxh)
Paper: normal with phosphor print
Glue: gummed
Printing technique: Offset
Printing colours: Cyan, magenta, yellow, black
Edition: 5,000 sheets
Format: Sheet containing 10 personalised stamps in 2 different : designs
Denomination: denomination 1 for post weighing up to 20g with : destinations within the Netherlands
Design: Sandra Smulders, Vormgoed, Gouda
Printing company: Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé B.V., Haarlem
Item number: 830063

Note: PostNL does not sell directly to collectors in North America. Its website refers to a company called Nordfirm, which says it sells Dutch new issues at face value. The Virtual Stamp Club has no connection to this company.