Question on Caribbean Netherlands

[SWH]

Since the Netherlands Antilles were dissolved in 2010, the Caribbean Netherlands have issued stamps. At first only inscribed 'Caribisch Nederland' and from 2014 with the additional inscription of the names of the individual islands of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius.



Can anybody tell me whether the stamps thus inscribed are 1) meant for specific use on the individual islands (even though maybe valid on all three islands) or 2) generally available on all islands. I drew a blank searching for the answer on Google.

[khj]

Alas, I don't collect/follow stamps after 2000, so I have no idea.

But Gerben, if you do get an answer, I would appreciate it if you posted it here as well. Thanks in advance!

k

[khj]

SWH try this blog Caribbean Netherlands

[SWH]

It would seem that the stamps I have shown in my first post were printed in two values for each of the islands. The six stamps in total apparently were printed in sheets se tenant and available on all islands. Furthermore the Dutch NVPH catalog lists these and later issues with the different island names all grouped together. So it would seem that Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius are not separate stamp issuing entities. Rather, the stamps as issued seem to be aimed at generating triple the revenues from the stamp collectors market.

[khj]

Sounds like they're doing the same thing as with several of the other Caribbean Islands.

[SWH]

Indeed

[Deleted]

Years ago some of the British Commonwealth Caribbean territories started splitting into several different stamp-issuing areas. As far as I can see, the purpose was just to cash in on stamp collectors.

[khj]

US has been doing the same thing for the past 3 decades. No reason that the trust territories need to have their own stamps.

Can you imagine if US had state issues like Japan had prefecture issues?!

Also, in US, not just issues split among territories -- the US does the most atypical thing by distributing printing of the same basic design among multiple vendors. Other countries have started to catch on.

I remember the 29¢ eagle/shield issues of the 1990s. Three different printers, the only difference was the color of the denomination. In booklet pane and in also in unconventional 17-stamp coil strip formats (special order only from The Cave). At first, I thought how great to collect varieties. Then after I bought everything and realized I had spent 3x the normal money... wait a minute...

[SWH]

Update: the Dutch NVPH catalog lists the islands as a single entity but the Michel catalog as three separate entities. Does anybody know how other catalog list these issues? Scott? Stanley Gibbons? Yvert & Tellier?

[khj]

The 2016 Scott only lists the issues released through the agent Hugo van Reijen. So that last issue listed in Scott is the 1Nov2012 Arms and Christmas ornaments issue.

The subsequent 2014 issues were released through Flamingo, and Scott does not list any of those.

[SWH]

Thanks khj