THE LION AS VOLLEYBALL PLAYER
by Piet van den Berg, Netherlands
THE LION AS VOLLEYBALL PLAYER |
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| added on Jan 1st, 2002 |
by Piet van den Berg, Netherlands |
Normally
you can use all sorts of animals as mascot and put that into a cancel. But also
this time it has a function.
One of the smallest countries in Europe is Belgium, but appearances are
deceptive. Besides the National Government the country has three Federal
Governments with seven provinces. The three Federal Governments are Wallonia,
Surroundings of Brussels and Flanders. Flanders is the northern part of Belgium
and Dutch is spoken. Each Federal Government has its own flag. The flag of
Flanders has a lion on it and that's the reason why the cancel shows a lion. The
history why Flanders uses a lion is very long.
I only write down here that the armorial bearings from the Netherlands has two
lions. So the use of a lion in the cancel has a reason which has to do with the
history of that part of Belgium.
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| Commemorative cancel showing the lion mentioned in this article | Cancel on a postally used cover |
| Information card ("Postage Paid stationery card") from the Belgian postal authorities announcing the issue of the cancel (frontside and backside). This card exists in four different versions. |
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| German card, version A, frontside | backside | PP imprinted version A |
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| German card, version B, frontside | backside | PP imprinted version B |
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| French card, frontside | backside | PP imprinted |
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| Flemish card, frontside | backside | PP imprinted |
The cancel was available from Dec 26, 2000 until Jan 31, 2001.
Also in this way you can look at stamps, cancels, postal stationery and other volleyball items.