Sunday, April 17, 2011

Odd stamps : 02a Silver / golden stamps

This is my second post with 'odd' stamps.
This time, i will show some silver stamps. Not silver foil, but real silver.
Unfortunatly, silver is fragile and can be exposed to oxygen. Other then silver rings and knifes, stamps can't be polished. Therefore some of the stamps are in plastic foil. It's also impossible to find them in used condition, they grow black after a certain time.

Belgium issued a silver stamp, commemorating 175 years of Belgium and 25 years of federalism.
On the stamp, the first king of the Belgians, Leopold I and the 6th (current) king Albert II.
Actually Belgium has no king, the Belgians have. All kings bare the title of 'king of the Belgians', not 'king of Belgium'. Anyhow, the stamp was emitted in a souvenir box, toghether with a sheetlet, depicting all royal couples so far. The face value is rather small, 4 euro, but catalogue prices went up, as the stamp is always worth his value in silver.



The neighbouring country, The Netherlands however were first. They emitted a silver stamp 4 years earlier. It was dedicated to the former 'guilder', and welcomes Euro currency.
On the silver stamp (also emitted in a protective plastic foil), one can see parts of the two 1 guilder coins who were in use at that time (sept. 2001). 3 months later, Euro was introduced in The Netherlands.
Face value is rather high, 12,75 guilders (+/-  euro) but the stamp itself is smaller then the belgian one.


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