Dutch mammals on stamps
8 January 2013 at 16:30 CET - The Hague / Hilversum – Today, PostNL in collaboration with the Foundation for Nature Footage launched a series of stamps with Dutch mammals. The first special stamp sheet of the series with the image of a squirrel was presented today by Yme Pasma, director retail and consumer market of PostNL, to Menno Bentveld, presenter of Dutch VARA-program Vroege Vogels (Early Birds). A unique aspect of these stamps is that after scanning with a smartphone a film about the squirrel is shown. The Foundation for Nature Footage consists of eleven nature organisations that collect footage of Dutch nature and make it available via www.natuurbeelden.nl.
Mammals come to life
A unique aspect of these stamps is that after scanning with the Chameleon eXplorer app on a smartphone, a film about the squirrel is shown. This technique was used earlier on the music stamps portraying Golden Earring and stamps in honour of the Olympic gold medallists. The app can be downloaded at www.postnl.nl/apps or www.scanfun.nl.
Face to face with mammals
With the series Mammals in the Netherlands PostNL introduces a follow-up to the previous series Birds in the Netherlands. Designer Martine den Boer from design agency Excello: “The series Mammals in the Netherlands consists of 36 mammals, which are all shown on the stamps in close-up. Each mammal looks you straight into the eyes, curiously, but sometimes also with a certain pride. The portraits have a soft-focus effect, making the animals look friendly and almost cuddly. The trail pattern of the respective animal is printed on the margin of the stamp sheet. It shows that squirrels are bounders: their hind paws come down in front of their front paws.”
Availability
Four stamps from the entire series of 36 mammals – the squirrel (2 January), the fox (25 March), the common seal (22 April) and the red deer (12 August) – will be available at all PostNL post offices throughout the country. The complete series is available by subscription only. For further information about the subscription: www.postnl.nl/zoogdieren.
The stamps are available separately at Bruna shops, at Collect Club in Groningen and online via www.postnl.nl/collectclub. The stamps have an indefinite term of validity. The designation on these stamps is Nederland 1, which means that they are for items of mail weighing up to 20 grams destined for addresses in the Netherlands.
About PostNL
PostNL is the inventive partner in the world of sending and receiving. We have been so for 200 years already. We are primarily active in the fields of mail, parcels and e-commerce, but we also offer services in the areas of data and document management, direct marketing and fulfilment. Outside the Netherlands, we are active in Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium and Luxemburg. PostNL employs a total of approximately 66,000 people. In 2012 our revenues reached almost € 4.3 billion.
We like to stay ahead of things. We are the most modern postal company in the world. We are proud of that. We are an example to the rest of the world in the automatic sorting of mail, we are the first listed postal company and we are the international champion in corporate responsibility, as leader in our sector in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2011.
About the Foundation for Nature Footage
The Foundation for Nature Footage consists of eleven nature organisations: ARK Nature Development, IUCN NL, the Dutch Nature Preservation Society, the Netherlands Society for the Protection of Birds, the Wadden Sea Society, the 12 Landscapes, the Institute for Nature Education and Sustainability, the Association for the Dutch Cultural Landscape, the Society for the Protection of Animals, the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance and the Gooi Nature Reserve Foundation.
In the next few years, the foundation will collect special footage on nature. The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision will provide a description of the images and will place them on www.natuurbeelden.nl. The images are divided into the themes animals, landscapes, plants and specials. The latter category includes a beautiful sunset over the North Sea, for instance or storks building a nest.