PostNL launches the Netherlands’ first postage stamp made from real Delft Blue ceramic

PostNL unveiled a new ceramic postage stamp on 7 September 2026 in collaboration with Royal Delft, presenting what the postal operator describes as the first postage stamp in Dutch postal history made from real ceramic. The Delft Blue Ceramic Stamp was announced by PostNL at 09:00 CEST and went on sale the same day, placing the release firmly inside the current daily news window.

The stamp is produced as a thin Delft Blue tile measuring 5 by 5 centimetres and 5 millimetres thick, making it substantially larger and more three-dimensional than an ordinary Dutch adhesive stamp. Its decoration was created specifically for the issue and features a floral bouquet with a bird, drawing on motifs associated with Royal Delft’s blue-and-white ceramic tradition since the seventeenth century. The item is presented in a luxury passe-partout-style package rather than as a conventional sheet-format stamp.

PostNL developed the issue with Royal Delft, the historic Delft pottery company whose roots extend back to the seventeenth century. The collaboration deliberately combines two long-running Dutch traditions: postage stamps as objects of design and national communication, and Delft Blue ceramics as one of the Netherlands’ most recognisable decorative arts. PostNL positions the issue as both valid postage and a specialist collectable rather than merely a ceramic souvenir.

For philatelists, the unusual material is the central point of interest. Postal administrations have experimented with wood, fabric, embroidery, metal and other unconventional substrates, but a thick ceramic stamp creates distinct questions around production, handling, storage and genuinely postal use. The issue is therefore likely to appeal not only to Netherlands specialists but also to thematic collectors of unusual stamp materials, ceramics, birds, flowers, applied arts and postal innovation.

The stamp carries value indicator 1 for domestic Netherlands mail and is priced at €14.95. PostNL says availability is limited and lists sales through participating Bruna post offices, its online shop and the Collect Club telephone channel. No total production quantity was stated in the launch announcement.