The bicycle is a Dutch national mode of transport. It has been used for over 200 years, taking the Dutchmen wherever they wish to go. As a tribute to the bicycle, and in particular bicycle parts, PostNL has issued six new stamps featuring fragments of bicycle parts in their actual size: a reflector, a bicycle frame, handlebars, a bicycle bell, an outer tyre and an inner tyre. The images are arranged on the stamps at an angle of 6 degrees.
Sander Plug from Amsterdam designed the stamps. He commented: ‘What you see on the stamps is almost the same as the cut out fragments. Some of the colours have been slightly edited to enhance the contrast, but that's all. I wanted to make it as easy as possible to identify the bicycle parts.’
Each fragment of a bicycle part was shot in full size and placed on a real postage stamp. This was how each fragment ended up on a bicycle stamp. ‘The whole stamp sheet itself also looks like a stamp, thanks to the perforation around it,’ says Plug.
The statistics shows that the Netherlands is a cycling country. There are 22.8 million bicycles in the state, of which 2.1 million are electric. An average Dutchman travels around 17.4 billion kilometres per year. In the Netherlands there are even separate traffic lights for cyclists, public parking facilities and roughly 37,000km of cycle lanes.
Check out other bicycle stamps.
