maandag 27 juni 2016

Sunday Stamps: Flags or ensigns (2)

Inspired by the Sunday Stamps blog posts by VioletSky, who shared all Canadian province's flags on stamps, and FinnBadger, who made an interesting mail art composition, for which he used the American state flag stamps as postage, I suddenly remembered this stamp sheet.



Issued in 2002 by Dutch Post, in those days still named PTT, this stamp sheet shows the flags of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands, created out of poems/songs about each province.
The stamp edges show something special from the province. For instance the author Annie M.G. Schmidt (well-known by some of you for her 'Jip & Janneke' books but she also made great, critical funny poems) was born in the province Zeeland.
Jan Pelleboer, a man who hosted the weather forecast in his unique way, came from Drenthe, while Fryslân (Friesland) is famous for its ice skates, and the 'Vierdaagse', the international four days walking march, takes place in the city of Nijmegen, which is in the province Gelderland.
And I guess you'll recognize the flag of Brabant now :-)

See more flags on stamps on and via Sunday Stamps.

7 opmerkingen:

  1. I remember well that you sent me the stamp with Annie M.G. Schmidt, which I love. The design of these stamps is original, indeed.

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  2. I love this set, it is such a clever design. Thanks for adding a second contribution to Sunday Stamps.

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  3. Thank you for your comments! I was hesitating whether I should post a second contribution or not. But I was so enthusiast by seeing back this stamp sheet that I couldn't wait until a next time.
    Also I learned by this: I didn't know 10 of the 12 flags. Only the Brabant flag (seen on buses in Brabant, too), which you easily can confuse with the Croatian flag, last week in a soccer match one Croatian player even had the Brabant, eh, Croation red-and-white squares painet on his head :-) and Frysian flag. Which shows the leaf of the Yellow Water-lily (in red..), and you might know it due to the dairy brand. That is, I've seen 'Frysian Flag' condensated milk in Spanish supermarkets and even a friend from the Middle East knew immediately this brand/flag/milk when seeing this condensated milk in Dutch shops. I don't know if the Frysian Flag also has reached America?

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  4. I've seen the Frisian flag, but not the other flags. In fact I didn't know each province had its own flag. Our provincial flags are flown everywhere, usually with the Canadian flag, so they tend to be more familiar.
    This is a wonderfully innovative design. I'm glad you added to the list (and that I hadn't closed the link before you did!)

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  5. A wonderfully inventive sheet, I smiled at the people easing their blisters, what a relief! We have a once a year 40 mile walk here which can have the same result.

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  6. So glad you showed us these so that I could learn about the Dutch provinces.

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