Netherlands New Guinea
Short Paid Aerogramme / First Flight Biak-Amsterdam via the Pole

Philatelic usage (Roggenkämper no. 1), addressed to the sender himself, poste restante Amsterdam airport. The sender intended to send the aerogramme with the first KLM flight Biak - Amsterdam via the pole on November 1, 1958 (endorsement on top).

Letters showing the official first flight cachet were cancelled November 8, 1958. Five days earlier, the first flight from Amsterdam to Biak had arrived. The aerogramme was late for the flight. It was cancelled about three weeks later at Biak (cds 25.11.58).

The aerogramme rate to European destinations was 35 c. The aerogramme was short paid 20 c and double the deficiency (40 c) was endorsed on the left hand side of the indicium. The postage due was converted into 27 UPU gold centimes, which was endorsed on the right hand side of the “T” stamp.

A separate currency, the Netherlands New Guinean gulden, came into being when West New Guinea became the only part of the Netherlands Indies to remain in Dutch control after Indonesia’s independence in 1949. It was fixed at parity with the Dutch gulden and circulated until Netherlands New Guinea became part of Indonesia as West Irian in 1963.

The taxation in UPU gold centimes was obliterated - most likely because the Netherlands New Guinea Gulden and the Gulden of the mother land were at par.

There are no signs that the aerogramme was returned to the sender. As it is philatelic mail made by a collector of first flight covers, it is quite unlikely that the aerogramme was collected at Amsterdam airport. 


References
Roggenkämper stands for Roggenkämper, Russ and Wiegand, Katalog der Aerogramme von Australien und Ozeanien, 2003