Netherlands Post Office Issues "Year of the Book" Stamps

The National Post Office of the Netherlands, "PostNL," has issued a special commemorative stamp sheet to celebrate 2016 as the "Year of the Book."

PostNL worked in collaboration with the National Library of the Netherlands to select ten books to feature on the stamp sheet including Turks Fruit by Jan Wolkers, Het Achterhuis by Anne Frank, Ethica by Spinoza and Oom Jan Leert zijn Neefjes Schaken by Max Euwe. The selected books represent a diversity of genres, time periods, and formats, including journals, children's books, textbooks, picture books, and literature.

Designer Niels Schrader created a "bookscape" to showcase the ten books across the the stamp sheet. "In this design, the books are spread out horizontally, photographed from different angles. For example, there are photographs of books which are open, or with the front or back cover showing, or only the spine of the book. This creates a landscape of books if you view them from above. We now call that a bookscape," said Schrader in a statement.

If you can bring yourself to break apart the bookscape, stamps are valid for mail shipped within the Netherlands, but for collectors in other countries, the stamps can be purchased online at collectclub.nl.