Belgium. Commemorative ATM issues 2012

Commemorative ATM issues 2012
The Mayan calendar | Franco Dragone | The wreck of the Titanic
The sailing ship 'Zenobe Gramme' | The Market Square of Bruges

2012. The Mayan calendar - Tongeren

Each year, bpost, through its philatelic service, offers the national philatelic groups and associations, the opportunity to host the launch and advance sales of the new stamp releases, which occur almost every month. For bpost it is a great way to promote their issues, and attract philatelists to the various provinces. For the selected philatelic groups, based usually on one association per province each year, it is also a very good way of promoting their events, because the advance sales and all that goes with them (special editions, postmarks, presence of the stamp designers, ...) attracts a large number of collectors. In addition, and only at some of these advance sales, bpost releases a special ATM edition related to one of the launched philatelic issues.

This was the case of the first advance sale of the year, held on Saturday January 14th 2012 in Tongeren, near Liege, in the province of Limburg.

The philatelic event was organized by the local philatelic association, the Koninklijke Postzegelvereniging Ambiorix Tongeren, in collaboration with bpost and the Tongeren city council department of culture. In 2012 the philatelic group celebrates the 50th anniversary of the renaming of the 'Cercle Philatélique de Tongres' to 'Postzegelvereniging Ambiorix'.
The advance sale and the philatelic exhibition were held in a unique place, the St. Catherinakerk or Begijnhofkerk, one of the oldest churches in the city, dating back to the 13th century (right).

For the Tongeren advance sale, bpost released 3 new stamp sets - the souvenir-sheet 'Les bières trappistes belges', the booklet with self-adhesive stamps 'Créatures fabuleuses', and in particular, the sheet with 5 identical stamps dedicated to the Mayan calendar (right image), designed by the MVTM team (Myriam Voz & Thierry Martin), and which is the subject for the new ATM issue.

The Mayan calendar has gained considerable popularity in 2012 because, according to some interpretations, a cataclysm and the end of the world would be announced by December 21st 2012 ... However, this is just a misinterpretation of the Long Count Mayan Calendar - The long cycle of the complex Mayan calendar last 1,872,000 days -5125 years-, began on August 11th 3114 BC, and therefore will end and will be reset on December 21st 2012. This, apparently, does not mean the end of the world for the mayas, but that it will end a cycle. Some think that humans will enter a new civilization different from the current one ...
To be on the safe side, Bpost established December 21st as the last day of sale of this issue ...

Bpost installed the usual E.S.E. distributor on the philatelic stand, next to the postmarking table. While it was possible to acquire the strips with the 4-values set at the bpost stand, many collectors lined up in front of the machine to buy their ATMs.

The ATM issue, also designed by MVTM, is illustrated with the disturbing figure also depicted on the souvenir-sheet. As usual, the country's name appears in the 3 official languages - in this case, Dutch (first, because Tongeren is a Flemish-speaking city), French and German. Below there is the zip code and name of the city, 3700 Tongeren, and the date. At the bottom, under the face value, the name of the issue and the bpost logo.

	The ATM design is available with the usual 4 face values, the only ones programmed into the E.S.E. distributor (1 - 2 - EUROPA 1 - WORLD 1). The face value is printed in black, by thermal transfer. The size of the ATMs is 50 x 25 mm. The labels are manufactured by Stamps Production Belgium on phosphorescent self-adhesive paper with fibres, on rolls of white waxed backing paper, by Tullis Russell Papermakers.
	The piece illustrating the ATM issue, the stamps sheet, the first day cover, and the special postmarks, is a jaguar-shaped urn found in the archaeological site of Monte Alban, the capital of a Zapotec state that dominated much of what is now the state of Oaxaca, in Mexico. It is exhibited at the National Museum of Anthropology, in Mexico City. The original photograph used for the issue (right) was taken in 2006 by Xuan Che.

For the Mayan calendar issues, the bpost philatelic service prepared two special postmarks, available to collectors, showing again the jaguar urn - one for the Tongeren advance sale, dated January 14th, and the other for the stamps sheet first day of issue - January 16th, in Brussels.

With the collaboration of Georges Keymis & Roger Budeners.

2012. Franco Dragone - La Louvière

In Belgium, the second ATM issue for 2012, was scheduled for the March advance sale at La Louvière, in the province of Hainaut. This philatelic event was organized by the local stamp club, the Royal Club Philatélique du Centre, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its foundation, on January 27th 1937. Furthermore, for 2012, La Louvière is designated the Capital of Culture for Belgium's French community.

The advance sale was held on Saturday March 10th at the Maison du Sport, in La Louvière. Bpost released 2 new stamp sets - the sheetlet 'Cartography' or 'World Map', dedicated to the cartographers Gerardus Mercator and Jodocus Hondius, and the self-adhesive stamp booklet 'Franco Dragone', which is also the subject of the ATM issue.

The 'Franco Dragone' issue was an idea of the La Louvière stamps club, in collaboration with local artist Daniel Pelletti, who is also a member of the bpost philatelic commission.

Franco Dragone is a theatre director, born in Italy in 1952, but who has lived in La Louvière since 1959. Between 1985 and 1998 he directed some shows for the Canada-based Cirque du Soleil. Since 2000, with his own 'Franco Dragone Entertainment Group' society in La Louvière, he has directed shows that play around the world.

The booklet of 5 self-adhesive stamps, containing values used for postage to Europe, is a creation of Jean Libert. It features different shows performed by the artist throughout his career - ''O'' for Cirque du Soleil, A New Day, and Le Rêve, in Las Vegas in 1998, 2003 and 2005, The House of Dancing Water in Macau in 2010, and as a special tribute to La Louvière, the great city performance Décrocher la lune.

Just one day before the advance sale, on March 9th, bpost announced that the E.S.E. distributor did not meet their requirements for public use, so it would not be used for advance sales until the problems, especially those involving ATMs with different printing errors, and with no face value, could be solved. This has been a problem evident to collectors, and which we have already mentioned on the occasion of its set up, but which bpost has taken over a year to respond to.
Bpost is planning a complete overhaul of the distributor, possibly including the installation of a stamp cutting device, and the repair of damaged printers.
Therefore, for the La Louvière advance sale, the E.S.E. distributor was not installed. Collectors were, however, able to buy the pre-printed ATMs only at the bpost philatelic stand.

	The ATM issue is also designed by Jean Libert. It is illustrated with the picture of Sancho Gille, the puppet who also appears in one of the stamps booklet. The country's name appears in the 3 official languages - French (La Louvière is a French-speaking city), Dutch and German. Below, as usual, there is the zip code and name of the city for the advance sale, 7100 La Louvière, and the date of issue. At the bottom, under the face value, the title of the issue, and the bpost logo.
	Sancho Gille is the giant puppet, star of *Décrocher la lune* (an expression that could be translated as 'to do the impossible'), a big city performance in La Louvière, which was held in 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2009. To mark the celebration of Cultural Capital, in 2012, Franco Dragone is preparing the fifth version of the *Décrocher la lune, an urban opera that will be performed in September, in La Louvière*.

The bpost philatelic service sold the ATM issue with the usual 4 face values, programmed into the E.S.E. distributor (1 - 2 - EUROPA 1 - WORLD 1). The characteristics of these labels and the impression are identical to previous releases.

For the Franco Dragone issues, bpost prepared two special postmarks featuring the Franco Dragone emblem - one for the La Louvière advance sale, dated March 10th, and the other for the stamps booklet first day of issue - March 12th, in Brussels. Curiously, both postmarks were applied using red ink.

2012. The wreck of the Titanic - Hannut

The centenary of the sinking of the Titanic is, without a doubt, a great excuse for the launching of all kinds of issues and philatelic products, even by philatelic services of countries without any apparent or direct relationship to the ship or its tragedy. 100 years after the shipwreck, the Titanic continues to arouse great interest and curiosity, and it is an excellent thematic subject for collecting. It is normal, then, that many philatelic services around the world have decided to take the opportunity to launch special issues during this year.

Åland Post and bpost commemorate the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic with a joint issue in honour of the 3 Ålandic and 27 Belgian victims who died in the disaster.

This is the case of the Belgian philatelic service, which even scheduled the advance sale of Titanic issues on the anniversary of the sinking, April 14th.
The advance sale was held at the Lycée Notre Dame, in Hannut, a town southeast of Brussels, in the province of Liege.

The philatelic event, which included a Liege-Luxembourg pre-competitive exhibition plus a small philatelic fair, was organized by the local stamp club, the Philatélic Club de Hesbaye.

In the Hannut advance sale, bpost released 2 new stamp sets - a booklet of 10 self-adhesive stamps dedicated to pets and, more importantly, the souvenir sheet, with 2 stamps, commemorating the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, which is also the subject of the new ATM issue. This is a special release, the first produced by bpost, with a 3D effect, and the sheetlet is sold together with a special viewer (right image and below). The design is by François Schuiten and Kris Maes.

A few days before the advance sale, bpost announced that it was not possible to repair / modify the E.S.E. vending machine for public use, and therefore it would not be used again at any advance sale. Instead of this, the philatelic service printed the ATMs, in advance, with the machine, and sold them to collectors on their stand.

At the time of writing this, it is not known whether bpost will acquire new equipment for the new scheduled releases, or if they will continue selling preprinted ATMs.

This is a step backwards that only contributes to a loss of interest in these issues by collectors. First there were definitive and commemorative issues that were issued and available in public distributors and postal kiosks throughout the country, then later they used a distributor for philatelic issues only, and now there are just preprinted ATMs. In addition, these are special releases for cities that, in most of the cases, have nothing to do with the subject of the issue.

	The ATM issue, also designed by François Schuiten and Kris Maes, is illustrated with the same image of the ship appearing on the souvenir sheet and its stamps (below). In the design, there is the country's name in the 3 official languages - French (in the first place, since Hannut belongs to the French community), Dutch and German. Below there is the zip code and name of the city of the advance sale, 4280 Hannut, and the date of issue. At the bottom, under the face value, the title of the issue, the designers names, and the bpost logo. The ATM design is available with the 4 face values programmed into the E.S.E. distributor (1 - 2 - EUROPA 1 - WORLD 1).
	The labels are manufactured by Stamps Production Belgium on phosphorescent self-adhesive paper with fibres, on rolls of white waxed backing paper.

The RMS (Royal Mail Steamship) Titanic was a British ocean liner of the White Star Line, the largest and most luxurious ever built. It sank on the night of April 14th to 15th, 1902, during its maiden voyage between Southampton, UK, and New York, after colliding with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland. The sinking of Titanic caused more than 1,500 deaths, in one of the deadliest maritime disasters in history.

	For the Titanic issues, bpost prepared two special postmarks - one for the Hannut advance sale, dated April 14th, and the other for the stamp sheet's first day of issue - April 16th, in Brussels.
Kris Maes, creator of the layout design of the 3D sheetlet and the ATM, participated in the Hannut advance sale, with a signing session and answering questions about the realization and characteristics of the special edition.

2012. TEMSIFIL 2012 and the sailing ship 'Zenobe Gramme'

The fourth ATM issue planned for 2012, in Belgium, was scheduled for the September advance sale in Temse, in the East Flanders region, north of the country, on the occasion of the celebration of the national philatelic championship TEMSIFIL2012.
It is the second time, since Gandae III (held in Ghent in 1991, and which had an ATM issue), that the national championship has been held in East Flanders. One of the main reasons for choosing Temse was to commemorate the 100th anniversary, in this city, of a large meeting of air and seaplanes, in 1912.
TEMSIFIL2012 was organized by the Fédération Royale des Cercles Philatéliques de Belgique, in collaboration with Pro-Post and Oost-Phila. The philatelic event was held from September 14th to 16th 2012 in the Temse Waasland Expohallen.

During the Temse advance sale, bpost released, on a one-per-day basis, 3 new stamp series. Firstly the sheet 'This is Belgium', which includes the main Belgian comics characters (see image below). Then the second, dedicated to the sailing ship 'Zenobe Gramme' (right), and finally the booklet of 10 self-adhesive stamps, 'Les feuilles d'arbre, ça colle !', with a special die-cut to give each stamp a shape of its own tree leave. In addition, the organization released five customized 'MyStamps' issues with themes related to the city.

As with past releases, one of the issues has also been used to illustrate a new ATM, the design devoted to the sailing ship 'Zenobe Gramme'.

	Once again, bpost did not install any distributor at the exhibition. The philatelic service printed the ATMs, in advance, and sold them to collectors on their stand.
	Left, unveiling of the sheet *'This is Belgium', by Jan Smets*,the bpost marketing & customer service director.


	The sheet of stamps and the ATM issue were prepared from a wonderfully detailed illustration by William Vance, the penname of William Van Cutsem, a Belgian comic strip artist. It shows the sailing ship 'Zenobe Gramme' on a stormy sea. In the ATM issue, the country's name appears in the 3 official languages. Dutch (first, because Temse is a Flemish-speaking city), then French and German. Below there is the zip code and name of the city, 9140 Temse, and the dates of TEMSIFIL 2012. At the bottom, under the face value, the name of the issue, the creation and lay-out designers, William Vance and Jean Libert, and the bpost logo.

The new ATM design is available with the usual 4 face values (1 - 2 - EUROPA 1 - WORLD 1). The face value is printed in black, by thermal transfer.

For the 'Zenobe Gramme' issues, bpost prepared two special postmarks showing the sailing ship - one for the Temse advance sale, dated September 15th, and the other for the stamp sheet's first day of issue - September 17th, in Brussels.

	The 'Zenobe Gramme' is a two-masted sailing vessel built in 1961, in the Boelwerf shipyards, in Temse. The ship was named after the Belgian electrical engineer Zénobe Théophile Gramme, inventor of the Gramme dynamo. The ship was used until 1970 for oceanographic research. The Belgian navy now uses the 'Zenobe Gramme' as a training and official representative vessel.
	The card on the right shows the sailing ship in Barcelona, in 2007

With the collaboration of Ivan Van Damme.

2012. La Grand-Place de Bruges - Bruges Market Square

The fifth and final issue of 2012. A somewhat unusual year, as only the first issue was actually available to collectors from a vending machine.
The new ATM issue, dedicated to the Market Square in Bruges, could be purchased on Saturday October 27th at the bpost stand in the Provinciaal Hof or Bruges Provincial Court (images below). The philatelic event was organized by the local stamp club, De Zeven Torentjes, in collaboration with the city Council and the Fédération Royale des Cercles Philatéliques de Belgique.

During the Bruges advance sale, bpost released some new philatelic issues - especially a magnificent sheet with 5 stamps engraved by Guillaume Broux, depicting the main buildings and monuments of the Grand-Place of Bruges. The historical centre of the city was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The most appealing thing about the sheet is the Bruges lace background, with the lower right corner perforated by a laser.
One of the stamps and the new ATM are dedicated to the impressive belfry of Bruges, a 83 metre high tower dominating the Grand-Place, and whose construction dates back to the late thirteenth century.

Collectors and visitors were able to buy all these issues at the bpost stand.

The design of the ATM is by Jean Libert and Guillaume Broux. The belfry appears on the left, on a background reproducing the Bruges lace. The philatelic service sold this issue with the 4 face values (1-2-EUROPA 1-WORLD 1). The face value is printed in black, by thermal transfer.

Many of the ATMs of this issue include small blue spots in different places, produced during the self-adhesive label printing. As a example, one of these spots can be seen in the left image, in the lower line of the third stamp, and another at the top of the fourth stamp, under E of BELGIË.

	For the 'Grand-Place' issues, bpost, as usual, prepared two special postmarks showing aspects of the belfry - one for the stamp sheet's advance sale, and first day of the ATM issue, dated October 27th, and the other for the sheetlet first day of issue - October 29th, in Brussels.

With the collaboration of Kris Van Wonterghem.