As mentioned in Blog 801, the New Zealand team at the Olympic Games has won its first medal - a silver in the women's trap shooting event - and the medallist, Natalie Rooney, therefore becomes the first of New Zealand's competitors to be featured on New Zealand Post's medal winners stamps. A delightful photograph of the medallist with her medal makes this an attractive issue and it is bound to be enormously popular in New Zealand. Rating:- *****.
Australia has now won 3 gold and 3 bronze medals (see Blog 801) but no news is available yet of the first of Australia Post's gold medallist stamps.
Just for the record, the Great Britain team has won its first gold medal in the form of Adam Peaty's victory in the men's 100m breast stroke swimming event but unlike the gold medallists at the London 2012 Games he will not feature on a stamp as Royal Mail has no plans to issue any such stamps this time round. I'm relieved about that mainly but now the Games have started and the medals have started to be awarded I have a slight twinge of regret that the British medallists will not be commemorated this year.
Finally, leaving the Olympics behind us, can anyone explain why the postal service of Netherlands, which has its own monarch, issued a stamp depicting Queen Elizabeth II on 2 August 2016? The "stamp" is produced in silver and has a tiny diamond included in it and sells for £43.43p. At least the price of this diamond-studded philatelic item is considerably less (£120 + tax) than the Jersey Post diamond-studded miniature sheet of 2012 - I guess in that context this Dutch item is a relative bargain.
You could argue that Netherlands is entitled to become a member of The Commonwealth should it wish since it had historical constitutional links with Great Britain, not the least of which being the choice of William Of Orange, the Dutch Stadtholder, as King of England in 1689.
Somehow, despite our close ties with Netherlands, I still don't think I shall be able to find a place in my collection for this particular "stamp". On the other hand, if the Dutch want to join The Commonwealth, well I just might have to think again.
Speaking of Silver... WAPO website is selling a 49.95 euro stamp honoring Queen Elizabeth II made of silver and diamond. The word under the country name seems to mean "registred".
ReplyDeleteDid I miss Netherlands' application to become a member of the Commonwealth or the United Kingdom?
http://wopa-stamps.com/index.php?controller=country&action=stampRelatedIssue&id=29774&cur=EUR
Dear Sebastien, I wrote the additional text about the Dutch Queen Elizabeth II silver stamp when I read about it on the WOPA site and published it and then found your Comment on the same subject! Amazingly we both had the same thought about Netherlands joining The Commonwealth. You must have been typing your comment as I was typing my additional text. What a strange item, the Dutch silver "stamp" is!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes.
Hello, the political context in the European Union encourages the idea of Commonwealth or showing some support to the UK (2 August, what's the meaning of the date?). But I fear that "pigeon money" is the main cause of this very strange issue that doesn't appear anywhere on PostNL philatelic website (https://collectclub.postnl.nl/). Regards and thank you for your comprehensive study of all these new issues.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Sebastien. I'm sure that you are right that this strange item is all about making money and not much else though I guess that most of us see no harm in paying tribute to a 90 year old lady who has worked hard and done a pretty good job over the years.
DeleteBest wishes.
The Dutch stamp is a personalized stamp. Issued by PostNL themselves. One of their many "personalized" stamps money making schemes.
ReplyDeleteThey issued a set of European monarchs of 10 different stamps, the stamp above being one of them. A very pricey set if you want all of them! And a waste of money.
It's a stamp for registered mail within the Netherlands. Current rate is €8.15
Dear Stewie1911, thanks very much for the information. The lengths some postal administrations will go to to make money is breath-taking. Thank you for clearing this up for us.
DeleteBest wishes.