World of Stamps: Netherlands Antilles

Issue 33 - September 6, 2013 - StampNewsOnline.net �

The Netherlands Antilles is now history, as it was dis-solved October 10, 2010 and was replaced by two new states within the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Curacao (Pais Koursou) and Sint Maarten; and three special municipali-ties of the Netherlands: Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (now collectively known as Caribbean Netherlands).

The sixth original member of the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, had already become a state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in 1986.

Up till October 10, 2010, the Netherlands Antilles had an area of 309 square miles and a population of 197,000. The main island was Curacao, off the coast of Venezuela. In addition, the state of the Netherlands Antilles consisted of Bonaire, also off the coast of Venezuela, and the three Ca-ribbean islands of St. Eustatius (‘Statia’), St. Maarten (the

World of Stamps:Netherlands AntillesBy Geir Sør-Reime

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Jumbo jet approaching the runway of the Princess Juliana airport in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles


1990 card showing oil refinery (NGK P7) (stamp imprint as Sc. 640)

Dutch part of the island of St. Martin) and Saba. The Netherlands An t i l l e s i n 1954 became a state within the Kingdom of the Nether-lands.

On Cura-cao, oil refin-ing is an im-portant part of the economy; otherwise tourism is vital to the economy of the islands.

The Netherlands Antilles originally had six island territories as members: Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao (the so-called ABC islands) and St. Eustatius (“Statia”), St. Maarten and Saba (the so-called Three S islands). We will concentrate here on the 1949-2010 stamps inscribed NEDERLANDS ANTILLEN.

Prior to 1949, all islands used stamps inscribed Curacao. In fact, a 1943 definitive issue featured views from all six islands. The first issue of the Netherlands Antilles in fact were also inscribed Cu-

Curacao 1943 with view of Saba (Sc. 166)


racao (in addition to “Nederlands Antil-len”), because they commemorated the 450th anniversary of the discovery of Curacao. The same year, a commemo-rative issue for the 75th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union was also issued.

In 1950, the previ-ous Curacao definitives were replaced by de-finitive stamps inscribed NED. ANTILLEN. The previous issues had depicted Queen Wilhelmina, but one of the last issues in-scribed Curacao was a coronation issue for

Queen Juliana (who became queen in 1948 following her mother’s abdica-tion. She herself abdicated in 1980, and her daughter Beatrix became the Queen of the Netherlands).

The Nether -lands Antilles have issued a number of semi-postals, starting with the 1951 Child Welfare stamps. A very special issue here was the 1953 overprinted stamp for the Netherlands Flood Re-lief Fund. In 1953, a single stamp

commemorated the 250th anniversary of Fort Beekenburg on Curacao, and in 1954, another single stamp was issued for the 3rd Caribbean Tour-ist Association Meeting, Aruba.

1949 UPU 75th anni-versary (Sc. 207)

1950 definitive (Sc. 217)

1 9 8 0 a b d i c a t i o n of Queen Jul iana (shown) and acces-sion of Queen Beatrix (Sc. 454)

1982 semi-postal, houses on Saba (Sc. B203)

1953 for 250th anni-versary of Fort Beekenburg (Sc. 230)


That was the last issue before a sin-gle stamp commemorated the ratifica-tion of the new Statute of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, when the Nether-lands Antilles became a Country within this united kingdom. The fifth anni-

versary of this Statute was commemorated 1959 with three stamps displaying the flag of the Netherlands Antilles (at that time with six stars placed on the central blue strip). This flag also appeared on the 1960 Labor Day stamp. The tenth anniversary of the statue was celebrated with

a stamp showing six such flags in the form of flying seagulls, and also the arms of the Netherlands Antilles. In 1969, the fifteenth anniversary was also celebrated with a single stamp showing Queen Juliana. For the 25th anniversary, in 1979, two stamps showing stylized doves and the flags of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles, respectively, were issued. In 1988, the Staten (Parliament) of the Netherlands Antilles celebrated its 50th anniversary, and three stamps were issued for this event.

The royal couple paid a visit to the Netherlands Antilles in 1955, and two semi-postals with the por-traits of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard were issued. In 1965, a

single stamp was issued to commemorate the

1954 tourism con-gress on Aruba (Sc. 231)

1959 5th anni-versary of Stat-ute of the Nether-lands (Sc. 262)

1960 Labor Day (Sc. 272)

1979 25th anniversary of Statute (Sc. 444)

1955 semi-postal for royal visit (Sc. B26)

1965 visit of (then) Princess Beatrix (Sc. 290)


visit of (then) Princess Beatrix. The Royal Silver Wedding was marked with two 1962 stamps. Prince Bernhard’s 60th birthday was celebrated with a 1971 single stamp. In 1966,

the marriage of Princes Beatrix to Mr Claus von Amsberg was celebrated with a single stamp showing two budgerigars. For the Silver Jubilee of Queen Juliana, a silver-col-ored single stamp was issued 1973. In 1980, Queen Juliana ab-dicated, and Queen Beatrix accessed to the throne. Two stamps,

one reproducing the 1948 Queen Ju-liana accession stamp, and one re-producing the 1965 Princess Beatrix stamp, were issued. The Golden Wed-

ding anniversary of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard was commemorated on a 1987 single (similar stamps were also is-sued by the Netherlands and by Aruba). In 1992, Queen Beatrix visited the Antilles, and two stamps were issued along with a single stamp commemorating the 12.5th accession anniversary of the Queen. In 2002, the wedding of Crown Prince Alexander to Maxima Zorreguieta was celebrated with two stamps and a souve-nir sheet. The Crown Prince couple visited the islands in late 2010. The birth of the heir, Princess Catharina-Amalia was celebrated with two 2004 stamps. The 25th accession anniversary of Queen Beatrix was celebrated on five 2005

1966 wedding of Princess Beatrix (Sc. 302)

1973 25th acces-sion anniversary of Queen Juliana (Sc. 355)

1987 for 50th wedding an-niversary of Queen Juliana (Sc. 575)

2002 for wed-ding of Crown Prince Alexan-der (Sc. 973-74)

2005 for 25th accession anniversary of Queen Beatrix (Sc. 1065)


stamps. The whole Royal Family was por-trayed on a set of six stamps issued 2008.

Scenic views from the three “S islands” appeared on a 1957 set of three stamps to promote tourism, and scenes from each of the six islands were the motifs of the pictorial definitive series that was issued 1958 (some

of these were re-issued in a larger for-mat in 1977). In 1961, a single stamp

was issued in honor of the first salute to the U.S. flag by the governor of St. Eustatius, November 16, 1776. This scene was repeat-ed on one of the three 1976 stamps issued for the bicentenary of the American Revolu-

tion. The then Governor of St. Eustatius (Peter Stuyvesant) was also depicted on a 1982 sin-gle issued to commemo-rate the bicentenary of U.S.-Netherlands diplo-matic relations. In 1993, three stamps noted the fact that the U.S. Consul-ate-General in the

Antilles had existed for 200 years. The 1965 definitives also featured

views from all six islands, as did a 1972 set of low-value stamps (see page 7).

2008 Royal Family, here Princess Cath-arina-Amalia (Sc. 1174)

1957 tourism, here Saba (Sc. 237)

1958 definitive, here Bonaire (Sc. 242)

1961 for 1st salute by foreign power to the U.S. flag flown on a ship, from St. Eusta-tius (Sc. 273)

1982 200th an-niv of US-Neth-erlands diplo-matic relations (Sc. 478)1993 for 200th anni-

versary of U.S. Con-sulate-General for the Antilles, Curacao (Sc. 704)

1965 definitive, Bonaire flamingos (Sc. 298)


Only in 1976, three stamps were issued with scenic views from the three ABC islands.

Rock paintings from each of these three islands appeared on a 1977 set of three, whereas new touristic

views from the three S islands appeared on a 1977 set. Hous-

es of Saba, Aruba and Curacao were depicted on the 1982 Child Welfare semi-postals.

New touristic views, of the ABC islands, were featured on three 1983 stamps (see page 8), and in 1999, tourist at-tractions on Saba, Bonaire and St. Maarten were featured on a set of three stamps.

1976 tourism, Aruba beach (Sc. 378)

1972 definitive: Curacao, Queen Emma Bridge (Sc. 331)

1977 rock paintings FDC, Sc. 391-393, and an actual example


The 1983 definitives depicted the local government build-ings of the various islands. The flags and arms of the five remaining islands in the Netherlands Antilles were depicted on a 1995 set of six stamps. The 2003-09 definitives again depicted views from each of the five constituent islands.

1983 tourism, Aruba: Natural Bridge, shown intact in upper left photo and in stamp (Sc. 489), and in lower right after it collapsed.

2007 definitive, Bo-naire: divers and sponge (Sc. 1138)

2007 definitive, Saba: The Bot-tom (Sc. 1140)


Left: 2007 definitive, Statia: Ft. Orange can-non (Sc. 1141); right: 2007 definitive, Saba: houses (Sc. 1145)

2007 definitive, Bonaire: fla-mingos (Sc. 1143)

2007 definitive, Curacao: Chobolobo Landhouse and Laraha tree (Sc. 1144)

2007 definitive, St. Maarten: Guavaberry Emporium (Sc. 1147)

Issue 33 - September 6, 2013 - StampNewsOnline.net �0

The postal stationery issues of the Netherlands Antilles have been pre-stamped postal cards and aerogrammes, the first issues of both were made 1959. A 1995 aerogramme had a stamp imprint showing the island flags of four of the islands (the St. Eustatius flag was only adopted 2002) and the flag of the Netherlands Antilles.

Some definitive and special stamp booklets have also been issued by the Netherlands Antilles.

* * * * *

When the Netherlands Antilles was split into three units on October 10, initially the event was celebrated with one stamp from each of the three new units.

The units are Curacao and Sint Maarten, that each be-came a state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the same status as Aruba has enjoyed for many years now), whereas the three remaining islands—Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius—became overseas communities of the Neth-erlands and there were new stamps inscribed “Caribisch Nederland” (Caribbean Netherlands) for use on these three islands.

It is known that the current contract between an agency on Guernsey and the Netherlands Antilles Post has been prolonged, and that this agency will produce new stamps for Curacao (or Pais Kursou as it is now known) and for St. Maarten, as well as for the remaining three islands, which are now known as Caribbean Netherlands.

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World of Stamps: Netherlands Antilles