Information about UN (United Nations) stamps

This is what my friend has just told me about the Geneva UN post office as well. Closed since mid-March 2020. But thank you for confirming that it is the same in NYC!

I found out that those ICJ stamps are classified as official stamps (Dienstmarke, Dienstzegel). Offical stamps are postage stamps that are used exclusively by authorities. Therefore they are not sold at the post office counter and are not approved for private or business mail.

Eigen postzegels

Sinds 1934 geeft het Gerechtshof eigen postzegels uit, die worden gebruikt voor de correspondentie van het Hof. Oorspronkelijk waren dat Nederlandse postzegels met een opdruk ‘Cour permanente de justice internationale’, later ‘Cour internationale de justice’. Vanaf 1950 geeft het Hof zegels uit met een eigen ontwerp, vaak met een afbeelding van het Vredespaleis. De zegels staan in de NVPH-catalogus vermeld onder de rubriek ‘Dienstzegels’.

Source

(Sorry, for the Dutch source but I haven’t found an English one.)

Thank you very much for this clarification, Hawkwind! I have found a stamp collector website that does indeed list this 70-year anniversary stamp under Dienstzegel #D64 by the NVPH catalogue. I am glad I now understand what I have purchased. I will hold onto these stamps for my collection :smiley:

Do you have the address of the UN Geneva or UN Vienna which if I want to sent?

sure, it’s on there website

there is even an office in China, but I did not try that so just crosscheck maybe.

the site is

at the very end you find the address for China, if you can send there it would be cheaper for you of cause :wink:

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I don’t know if the UNPA China can sent letter.I’ll try sent an email ask them first.
Can I use old none Euro stamps for UN Vienna?@pumuckl

No the non Euro Stamps of UNO Vienna are no longer valid
only the Euro value

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I live not too far from the UN HQ in New York City. Sadly I do not recommend using the UN post at all. A little history. Years ago the UN post office was an official branch of the USPS except it only accepted UN postage. Mail was dispatched daily and most postal services were offered as at any USPS office. Fast forward to now. Today there is no more post office. It is just a counter where tourists can buy stamps and drop off only postcards and basic letters. Nothing else. Also there is no daily dispatch. My experience has been that they just sit on it until they feel like it. Everything I sent took at least an extra week (pre-pandemic). I sent a letter to myself and sure enough it took nearly two weeks to travel the two km to my flat. And to add insult to injury they don’t even use the cool UN postmark they used to. Somebody carelessly applied a UN postmark that was illegible and missed the stamp altogether. It was a standard USPS style “plug” except it said United Nations. Now during the pandemic the building is closed to the public. You can still mail in your cards for postmarking. I tried that and this time it took over a MONTH to travel the same 2km and there was no postmark at all. So now I am stuck with a bunch of nearly useless stamps. Who needs a one month delay on top of pandemic delays. ONLY USPS stamps from now on. The UN clearly is just after the collector revenue despite calling it a “Postal Administration”. They own the UPU but can’t even follow their own rules on timely dispatch and postmarking. What a joke!

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Really sad,I always want a postcard sent from UN HQ.It is really low efficiency.
What address should I sent if I want get a postcard from UN HQ?@gonepostal1840

I didn’t know the Dutch ICoJ also were UN stamps!?
I’ve bought them in NL and have used them succesfully for regular mail from NL (the ‘international 1’ stamps can be used in the Netherlands for mail to countries outside NL, the 0.61 stamps can be used with additional postage for mail within and outside the Netherlands, as long as the additional postage is sufficient).

@aegisW
You can find full information at:

I could send one for you if you’d like. I’d be curious how long it takes to reach you and I just want to get rid of whatever UN stamps I have left and be done with it. They are obviously of no use for paying bills even before the pandemic and being able to go in person, and with the pandemic anything for Postcrossing would expire long before the card ever arrives. I don’t have any current issues obviously.

Thank you! I sent you pm!@gonepostal1840

The ICJ is a UN organisation (although the history goes back to the Permanent Court of International Justice founded in 1920), so the Dutch ICJ stamps are UN stamps in a way, but the stamps only mention ICJ, not UN. As always, there are rules (ICJ stamps can only be used on mail originating from the ICJ) and there is what happens. I guess PostNL doesn’t check if the ICJ stamps are used on ordinary mail or it is too much hassle to return the mail for proper postage or to send a underpayment notice.

See also this quote (in Dutch) where the commercial director of PostNL states that the stamps cannot be used on ordinary mail.


Source: https://www.filahome.nl/postzegels/internationaal-gerechtshof-2016.htm

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Thank you for sharing this information! Good to know the quote by the commercial director of PostNL.

I still am wondering if there might have been a few editions issued to use more widespread. The stamps shown here I’ve bought in 2011 directly from PostNL (far from the Hague), and as far as I remember it was not accompanied by any warning to not use them outside the court. There is the hook (L) in the bottom left corner, similar to all other regular stamps, so I guess indeed PostNL does not check these ICoJ stamps, and probably accepts these for postage on regular mail. As said, I’ve never experienced problems in sending both this and the international rate stamp (while I know PostNL still is checking postage, using the ‘Frankering gecontroleerd’ marks).

On ‘Postzegelblog’ these 2011 stamps have been announced (also without info about the use within or outside the CoJ), https://www.postzegelblog.nl/2011/02/19/courzegels-aangepast-aan-cijfersysteem/

As said, thank you for sharing the information, thanks to that I learned these are UN stamps (which was new to me). And thanks to stamps I (we all) keep on learning :slight_smile:

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The ICJ stamps could be bought without cancellation from 1989 I believe, they were included in stamp subscriptions from PostNL too and you could buy them separately. There were several editions, mirroring the changes in the normal postage (from guilders to euro, from value to service), but they were never intended as normal stamps. The ICJ mail is processed the same way as the rest of the Dutch mail, that is why they have the hook symbol and the priority label. I guess mail franked with ICJ stamps is very limited, so PostNL doesn’t reject them. The revenue is the same as ordinary stamps, so PostNL isn’t losing any money.

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I live near the UN Headquarters in Geneva. Fortunately they appear to be sending out daily as I receive item posted from their the very next day. Swiss Post has not missed a beat during covid, so perhaps Swiss Post are still opening the UN Geneva station.

One advantage of mailing via the UN stations is that Mint UN stamps are available well below face value on the collector market, so if you mail a lot of postcards, well there’s that.

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@pmsobon
Good to know that. I’ve given up on the UN near me (New York). There is no price advantage over regular US Postal Service rates and in fact it costs me more because I have to pay bus fare and waste half hour each way to get to the UN or pay postage to send the cards there. To add insult to injury, even before the pandemic they just let your letters and cards sit for days (even when I brought them in person) before giving them to USPS. They don’t even use the beautiful UN cancels anymore. It’s just not even worth the discount you mentioned.

I used to be there,I thought you sent anything from UN Geneva,You need buy ticket(5 or 10 CHF?)to get in,and then sent them?That really expensive.

Yes UN New York is really “behaving” bad at the moment.
So UNO Geneva is my favorite. For the admission, at least for UNO Vienna the post office you can enter without the addmission fee

I’m worried to hear about your experience. I bought the new 2021 Sports for Peace UN issue and was thinking of mailing out some postcards with them, but with the delay you are speaking of I wonder whether the price will increase before they get dispatched (to follow the USPS rates in August). The stamps have a printed rate of $0.55 and $1.20, not a “forever” rate.

Is it faster in your experience to mail it from the counter in the NYC HQ, rather than mailing it in to them?