Postzegelcode

A postzegelcode is a hand-written method of franking in the Netherlands. It consists of a code containing nine numbers and letters that customers can purchase online from PostNL and write directly on their piece of mail within five days as proof-of-payment in place of a postage stamp.

Example of a postzegelcode

For mail within the Netherlands the nine letters and numbers are written as a grid of 3x3. For international mail there is fourth additional row that contains P, N, L.

The system was started in 2013.[1] Initially the postzegelcode was more expensive than a stamp because additional handling systems were required. Then for a while the postzegelcode was cheaper. Eventually the tariffs were set to the same price.

In December 2020, 590,000 people sent cards with postzegelcodes.[2]

Safety

Since the codes are only valid for five days, the chance that someone would guess a recently purchased code is quite low. Assuming 26 letters and 9 digits (the zero is not used to avoid confusion with the letter O), there are 35^9 (=78.8 trillion) possibilities. Even if a postzegelcode were used for all mail items in the Netherlands, the probability is about 1 in 2 million that any stamp code has been sold in the past five days.

References
  1. "Postzegel niet meer nodig met app". nos.nl (in Dutch). 2013-05-23. Retrieved 2023-08-29.
  2. "Gebruik postzegelcodes PostNL bijna verdrievoudigd". RTL Nieuws (in Dutch). 2020-12-29. Retrieved 2023-08-29.
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