TT Assen 100 Years

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the TT Assen, PostNL will issue the stamp sheet TT Assen 100 Years on 5 June 2025. Each of the 10 stamps features a black-and-white photo of a motorcycle racer who won one or more races at the TT Assen. The featured riders are Piet van Wijngaarden, Geoff Duke, Mike Hailwood, Jim Redman, Giacomo Agostini, Ángel Nieto, Wil Hartog, Jack Middelburg, Egbert Streuer & Bernard Schnieders, and Hans Spaan. The stamps bear the denomination “1”, intended for mail up to 20 grams destined for addresses within the Netherlands. The stamps were designed by graphic designer Jan van Mechelen and illustrator Iwo Tuleya of Rotterdam. A sheet of 10 stamps costs €12.10.

FRAME STAMPS

In addition to its official stamp issue programme, PostNL also has an annual programme for frame stamps. This programme is flexible, allowing PostNL to issue stamp sheets on an ad hoc basis in response to current events, such as the 100th anniversary of the TT Assen. Each issue follows a fixed layout and includes a standard number of frame stamps. The TT Assen 100 Years stamps are available while supplies last, exclusively via the webshop and the Collect Club customer service at 088 – 868 99 00.

SUBJECT

The TT (Tourist Trophy) Assen is an annual motorcycle race held at the Drenthe Circuit near Assen. In early 1925, the Motor Club Assen and Surroundings developed plans to organise a road race. Until then, road races on public streets were prohibited. However, the new 1924 Motor and Bicycle Act allowed for exemptions. On Saturday, 11 July 1925, 27 riders lined up for the first TT, on a 28.4-kilometre course of cobblestone and dirt roads in the Rolde–Borger–Schoonloo triangle. Only five riders managed to finish. The second edition took place on the De Haar–Hooghalen–Laaghalen triangle. Since 1926, the start/finish line has remained in the same location. In the 100-year history of the TT Assen, races were only not held during the war years (1940–1945) and the pandemic year 2020. Since 1955, the races have no longer taken place on public roads, but on the permanent Drenthe Circuit. All Grand Prix classes are featured at TT Assen, currently including Moto3, Moto2, MotoGP and MotoE. In 2024, the races attracted a total of 192,554 visitors. Since 2016, the TT Assen has always been held on the Sunday of the last weekend in June.

Sources: racesport.nl, ttcircuit.com, Wikipedia

DESIGN

The TT Assen 100 Years sheet contains 10 stamps, each featuring a different motorcycle racer who won at Assen. One stamp shows a sidecar team, with the passenger (“bakkenist”) also visible. The names of the riders are: Piet van Wijngaarden, Geoff Duke, Mike Hailwood, Jim Redman, Giacomo Agostini, Ángel Nieto, Wil Hartog, Jack Middelburg, Egbert Streuer & Bernard Schnieders, and Hans Spaan. All riders are shown in action on their motorcycles, entering the stamp frame from the left. The design emphasises speed through the cropping, the blurred effect behind the bikes, and racing stripes with gradient colours in the background. At the bottom of each stamp is the rider’s name and the year of the photo; at the top right is the year of their (first) win. On the left edge of each image is a vertical red-white-blue checkerboard pattern, referencing the curbstone colours of the TT Assen circuit. The sheet margins list the riders’ names, their national flags, the motorcycle brands, and the classes in which they won. The stamps were designed by Jan van Mechelen and Iwo Tuleya, ZEE [typo]graphic design, Rotterdam.

TYPOGRAPHY

The typeface used for the denomination “1” and “Nederland” is a 2018 design by type designer Martin Majoor of Arnhem. The other text is set in Riggs Condensed and Riggs Extended, typefaces created in 2020 by Nikola Djurek from Croatia for Typotheque, The Hague.

DESIGNER

In 2023, graphic designer Jan van Mechelen was responsible for the 75 Years of Solex in the Netherlands stamp sheet, which featured the iconic French front-wheel-drive moped. In 2025, Van Mechelen moved up to big motorcycles with the TT Assen 100 Years issue. “There was a personal connection in both cases,” he said. “As a teenager I tinkered with Solexes. Now I ride a 1200 cc motorcycle. Designing these stamps was an extra thrill for a biker.”

Distant Past

Van Mechelen received help from motorsport and TT Assen experts Mischa van den Berg, Peter Oosterbaan, and Luc Rengers. “They know the full history of the TT. I knew most of the names on the stamps, but I definitely needed their help for the early years.”

Leaning into the Turn

From the start it was clear that the motorcycles and riders would take centre stage on the stamps. “There are plenty of photos,” Van Mechelen said. “The challenge was creating a form where each stamp stands on its own while the 10 together form a unified whole. We looked for images showing the bikes from roughly the same angle, entering the stamp from the left, slightly leaning into the turn. You can’t just flip images—that’s immediately noticeable to experts. Only the sidecar stamp deviates from this format, as we wanted both Streuer and Schnieders, both from Assen, to appear together. By omitting the rear of the bike, more detail is visible. The cropping enhances the sense of speed. They storm onto the stamp.”

Visually Adjusted

Different types, brands and sizes of motorcycles are shown. Van Mechelen: “We adjusted the bike sizes optically within each frame to keep the overall composition balanced, which you can see in the spacing to the perforations. Except for the sidecar, of course, which has a unique format. The other nine bikes enter at slightly different angles, creating dynamism.”

Last Century

Five of the ten stamps show Dutch TT winners; the others show international champions. “The sheet opens with Piet van Wijngaarden from 1925, the 500 cc winner of the first TT,” said Van Mechelen. “The final stamp features Hans Spaan, who won the 125 cc race in 1989. We considered including modern legends like Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez, but securing rights to their images was too complex. So, we focused on the 20th century, which also allowed us to work exclusively with black-and-white images, enhancing visual unity. Older bikes also have less advertising, creating a calmer composition.”

Blur Effect

To convey motion, a blur effect was added to the left side of each image. This was done by Iwo Tuleya, who interned at Van Mechelen’s studio in early 2025. “We added the blur only to the back of the bike,” Tuleya explained. “The front wheel, fairing, rider, logos and start numbers are all sharply rendered to enhance contrast and evoke speed. The blurs were first uniformly applied and then customised per photo. It also helps unify images taken by different photographers.”

Dust Clouds

Various design elements connect the stamps to the TT world. “We tried backgrounds with asphalt textures, circuit contours, even exhaust fumes,” said Van Mechelen. “But those distracted from the bikes. So we took a subtler route. Behind the bikes are racing stripes with red and blue gradients, evoking speed. A vertical red-white-blue checkerboard stripe on the left edge references the TT curbstones. The blue gradient in the sheet border symbolises abstracted dust clouds—since the early TT races were held on dirt roads.”

Angular Letters

Typography plays an important role in Van Mechelen’s work. “For these stamps we used the Riggs typeface. The neutral Riggs Condensed was used for captions, and the angular Riggs Extended—note the shapes of the ‘a’ and ‘r’—for titles and the word ‘winnaar’ (winner). Its angularity suits the harsh geometry of the TT circuit and the bold ‘T’s seen throughout Assen. The italic slant evokes the lean of a racing bike, and we skewed the words 8 degrees upward so they appear upright again—like riders coming out of a curve.”

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

For 30 years, Jan van Mechelen (Gouda, 1960) has worked as a designer under the name ZEE. He focuses on [typo]graphic design for books, identities, exhibitions and websites. ZEE mostly works in the cultural sector but also serves corporate clients. Collaboration with a network of specialists is key. His work is marked by a love of typography, photography and paper. ZEE bridges the digital and physical worlds. Clients include the Chabot Museum Rotterdam, Conny Janssen Danst, Erasmus University, Heineken Building Rotterdam, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Dutch Photo Museum, Stadsherstel Historisch Rotterdam, and many individual artists. Previous stamp designs for PostNL include 80 Years of Freedom in Brabant (2024), 75 Years of Solex in the Netherlands (2023), and Volvo Ocean Race Pit Stop The Hague (2015).

Iwo Tuleya (Warsaw, Poland, 2002) studied graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 2022 he began studying illustration at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, expecting to graduate in 2026. He interned at ZEE [typo]graphic design from February to May 2025.

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SALES/VALIDITY

The TT Assen 100 Years stamps are available while supplies last via the webshop and the Collect Club customer service (088 – 868 99 00). They are also sold at Bruna stores in Assen (Kleuvenstee, Kruisstraat, Nobellaan) and at the pop-up TT museum. The validity period is indefinite.

VALUE

These stamps bear denomination 1, for domestic mail up to 20 grams. A sheet of 10 stamps costs €12.10.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

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(Please note this is an unofficial AI translation of the original Dutch text!)