Introduction

On 1 June 2017 PostNL introduced the new datestamps in all PostNL-locations in the Netherlands. The old ones were withdrawn on 1 january 2017 with the argument that all postal procedures and forms were now fully automated. Actually there were still forms, especially for customs, that required a datestamp, but that was carefully ignored.

This move turned out to be desastrous for stamp collectors. It was no longer possible to go to the post office and have stamps cancelled for your collection. Also when people wanted to send registered letters or packages with stamps on them, the post office should take a pen and cross out the stamps making them invalid for a collection. All national organisations of stamp collectors protested, eventually with succes.

Per 1 June 2017 all locations were issued a new datestamp. The difference with the old ones was that the datestamp only had the name of the town and a number, while the old datestamps had the name of the town and of the street where the post office was located. Also the new datestamps were smaller (34 mm in stead of 37 mm).