The International Website for People Interested in Netherlands+Philately!
For the serious philatelist, there is nothing more fascinating than a piece of postal history that transcends borders—both literally and metaphorically. Paquebot envelopes are precisely such a piece of history. These letters, dispatched from ships drifting on the high seas, not only have a captivating …
Belgium, together with Luxembourg, sent a UN-contingent to Korea in 1951. This contingent, the Belgian United Nations Command (BUNC), consisted exclusively of volunteer soldiers: 3.171 Belgians and 78 Luxembourgers.
Sending a telegram used to be the best way to get a message across quickly. In the age of the (steam) ship it could take weeks or months before normal mail arrived. Airmail was faster of course, but even that could still take quite some …
A lot of mail can be found to passengers (or workers) on board of a ship. Quite a number of them are returned to sender or redirected, mainly because the person is not on board or because the ship has left.
During the later part of the 16th century several cities in the Netherlands (Middelburg, Hoorn, and Amsterdam among them) equipped vessels, with the specific purpose of trading with the Far East. These were all done under single contracts. Competition among the cities was fierce and …
In this blog entry I will try to understand why the five picture postcards below were initially unsuccessful in reaching their proposed addressee: E.W. Rose. A philatelist approached me during our last auction because he had read somewhere that I fancied postal items with a …
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