Old Postal Routes

Postcard received from Michiel, The Netherlands. The Dutch, in traditional costume.

And a beautiful and interesting stamp depicting Old Postal Routes.

This is one of 2 different International stamps in the series. (I'd love to receive the other one somehow.) 

For hundreds of years there was only one family that held a monopoly on European mail delivery. It all started in 1489, when Maximilian 1 of Austria ordered the Lombardian courier family Tasso to set up a postal network. Under Philip the Handsome and Charles V - Maximilian's son and grandson - the network continued to expand across the Hasburg Empire. The mail was taken from A to B as fast as possible, first on horseback and then by stagecoach. Although coaches were not as fast as horses, they were able to carry a lot more post. On top of that, paying customers provided additional earnings. Von Thurn und Taxis (that was the name the Tasso acquired in the 17th century) used a relay system to deliver the mail as quickly and efficiently as possible. Along the routes there were plenty of stage stations where postillions could rest, get a fresh horse, and drop off or pick up mail. Their motto was fast, fast, fast, superfast. It was all about getting news to the farthest corners of Europe in as little time as possible. This way, the Von Thurn und Taxis family business dominated the European postal service from the 16th to the 19th century.

This stamp shows 2 postillions on a stagecoach pulled by 2 horses. The other (unshown) stamp shows a rider on horseback with a post horn in his mouth. On the right hand side of each stamp there are identical vertical cut-outs of a painting of a resting horse with its head in a feeding trough. All images have been printed in the same blue as the Priority logo. A beautiful blue indeed.

A separate layer in gold features two symbols that refer to action and rest in the relay system on the old postal routes. The symbols comprise a triangle pointing to the right that refer to action, and two narrow parallel bars that refer to rest. The typography of the stamp is printed on white above the large image of the stagecoach and then down along the narrow image with the resting horse. The PostEurop logo is printed below the horse. A line of golden dashes indicates the postal routes. They symbolise the stops on the routes that the postillions used to run.

This is a beautiful stamp, with many layers of interest. The blue is spectacular, and the gold is shimmery, although you can't see this effect in the photo.

Credit: netpha.nl/news/old-postal-routes/