2428) Mount Saint Peter Nature Reserve", Netherlands: "Experience Nature Stamp Series": A Stamp Sheet issued by PostNL (Netherlands Post) highlights the Flora & Fauna of this place: Date of Stamp Sheet issue: 07.07.2022:
About Experience Nature - Mount Saint Peter:
On 13.06.2022, PostNL has brought out the "Experience Nature – Mount Saint Peter" Stamp Sheet of ten stamps in ten different designs.
The denomination on these stamps is ‘1’, the denomination for items weighing up to 20 g destined for the Netherlands.
The stamp sheet about Mount Saint Peter is part of the multi-annual Experience nature 2021-2023 series.
In the series, four stamp sheets are issued every year, each comprising ten different stamps. The stamps feature images of plants and animals in unique Dutch Nature Reserves across the country. In 2022, it is the turn of the provinces of Zeeland, Zuid-Holland, Limburg and Gelderland.
This issue focusses on the chalk landscape of Mount Saint Peter, located in Southern Limburg.
The stamp sheets issued earlier this year were about "Fort Ellewoutsdijk" in Zeeland (03.01.2022) and the "Nieuwkoopse Plassen" in Zuid-Holland (21.02.2022).
Later this year, stamps will be issued featuring the "Leuvenum Woods" on the Veluwe in Gelderland (15.08.2022).
About Mount Saint Peter:
Mount Saint Peter lies in the south-west of Limburg, between Maastricht and the border with Belgium.
This hill is mainly known for the extraction of marl for use in agriculture and as construction material (marl blocks and cement).
Marl, a type of limestone mixed with a small percentage of clay, was mined underground in the Middle Ages, creating marl tunnels.
Opencast mining began at the end of the 19th Century.
Mount Saint Peter has been managed by "Natuurmonumenten" since 1995, without the large ENCI quarry at the time.
With the ending of marl mining in this quarry, this area has also gradually come under the protection of Natuurmonumenten.
The "Oehoe Valley" was transferred in 2010, the Northern part of the quarry in 2017, and the Southern part in 2020.
Since 2017, the quarry has been accessible to hikers via a flight of 215 steps.
The quarry is now being developed as a new Nature Reserve with rare calcareous slopes. Managing the area is a challenging task. Water is pumped from the quarry day and night, and sheep and goats keep the grass short, alternating with mowers.
In summer, the calcareous grasslands are full of rare flowers and herbs that attract numerous species of insects, butterflies and birds.
The underground tunnel system in the hill itself is a favourite hibernation spot for bats such as the Natterer’s bat, the pond bat and the whiskered bat.
Together with the neighbouring "Jeker Valley", Mount Saint Peter has been an official "Natura 2000" site since 2013. The area measures 233 hectares in total and includes 24 hectares of underground passages and quarries.
Mount Saint Peter is a multi-faceted area.
There is the plateau – is called a mountain in the Netherlands – and the endless marl passages underground, and it is also of cultural and historical interest.
There is "Fort Sint Pieter", which towers over the city, and then there are Sint Pieter village, old farmhouses, chapels and cave dwellings.
The area is home to all sorts of rare animals and plants that are found nowhere else in the Netherlands. The limestone marshes are also unique to Mount Saint Peter. The area is within walking distance of Maastricht city centre.
The mountain and the quarry are grazed by a herd of Mergelland sheep and Dutch Landrace goats led by a shepherd. It is an amazing sight when the calcareous grasslands turn into a huge carpet of flowers, or when one sees wild marjoram and poppies growing on the sunken lanes.
The Experience Nature – Mount Saint Peter stamps feature the following ten residents of this Nature Reserve -
Salad Burnet, Whiskered Bat, Comma Butterfly, Wild Marjoram, Badger, Bee Orchid, Purple Starthistle, Eurasian Eagle Owl, Lords-and-Ladies and Wood White Butterfly.
Each has its own stamp.
The stamp sheet also features many more images of flora and fauna from this area. Translucent images of these have been incorporated into a separate graphic layer on the stamp sheet: the Eurasian Eagle Owl (top left), the flowers of the Common Rock-rose (top right), the Old World Swallowtail (centre left), the stalk of the Common Rock-rose (centre), the Pincushion flower (centre under centre) and the fruit of the Lords-and-Ladies (below left and right). These transparent images continue across the perforations and connect the stamps with each other and the sheet edge.
On the sheet, the ten plants and animals are depicted in their natural environment, each on their own stamp.
In some cases, the image or background colour continues onto the adjacent stamp and onto the sheet edge.
All photos are incorporated in a graphic layer of different-sized overlapping circles, which break through the boundaries of the perforations.
The circle pattern returns as small droplets on the sheet edge and the tabs. There is another graphic layer on top of the circles featuring transparent images of animals and plants from this area. The monochrome images are almost abstract and link the stamps.
For the typography, the font, which consists of tiny circles, was given the name "Fdot". The explanatory texts on the sheet edge are set in the "TT Milks Light" and "Demibold" in capitals . In the text, the designer has creatively expresses his associations with the names, features and appearance of the plants and animals depicted, adding a touch of humour.
Two First Day Covers (FDCs) have been issued in the Stamp issue, both containing five stamps each.
The special Cancellation Stamp carries the image of a butterfly in the centre. The Cancellation is dated - "13.06.2022".
Two Presentation Packs (PP) have been issued in the set, containing information/stamps on five stamps each
Technical details:
Issue Date: 13.06.2022
Designer: The Experience Nature - "Mount Saint Peter" Stamp Sheet was designed by graphic designer Frank Janse from Gouda.
Printer: Cartor Security Printers, Meaucé-La Loupe, France
Process: Offset
Colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black
Sizes:
Stamp Size: 40.00 mm x 30.00 mm,
Sheet Size: 122.00 mm x 170.00 mm
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DeleteRajan Trikha has commented:
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