Belgium reveals its 2025 stamp program

By David Hartwig

Bpost, Belgium’s post office, announced its 2025 stamp program in a Nov. 22 press release.

The program includes a sheet of Postcrossing stamps, a stamp commemorating the 600th anniversary of two academic institutions, and a sheet of round stamps issued in honor of the irrational number pi.

In the press release, Bpost said its 2025 program is “a homage to Belgium and its creative spirit, between history and innovation.”

The 2025 program begins Jan. 27 with five issues. A sheet of five stamps commemorates the Digital Arts and Entertainment School in Kortrijk, Belgium. QR codes on two of the stamps can be scanned with a smartphone to access a short film and a video game created by students at the school.

Other Jan. 27 issues mark 100 years of the franking machine, 600 years since the founding of UCLouvain and KU Leuven universities, and the 100th anniversary of the first flight from Brussels to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), the capital of the Belgian Congo.

Stamps in a Jan. 27 sheet of 10 feature the Smurfs working toward a better world. “Those good-natured blue humanoids the Smurfs, great ambassadors of Belgian culture, show their social engagement in a playful way to promote the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” Bpost said.

Three more issues will arrive April 7. Two archaeology stamps follow the 2025 Europa theme of National Archaeological Discoveries. Next, stamps in a sheet of five feature different views from areas in eastern Belgium.

A final April 7 stamp continues Belgium’s Inventors series with a stamp commemorating Ernest Solvay, who developed the ammonia-soda process for the manufacturing of soda ash.

June 16 will see the arrival of three more issues. Ten stamps in a foldable sheet show different scenes from Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs. The painting is shown in its entirety on another part of the sheet and can be displayed when the sheet is folded. An additional June 16 sheet of five shows banknotes used throughout Belgium’s history.

June 16 will also see a sheet of five stamps commemorating 20 years of Postcrossing, an online project that allows users to send and receive postcards from random people around the world.

On Aug. 25 Bpost will issue a circular sheet of five circular stamps commemorating the irrational number pi, which is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Other Aug. 25 issues include a stamp honoring Flemish designer and ceramist Piet Stockmans and five stamps showing notable locations in the city of Hasselt.

Five Oct. 20 issues will round out the 2025 program. Three of these issues are related to animal life: a sheet of five stamps depicting terrestrial mollusks, a sheet of five showing different microfauna (microscopic animals) and a sheet of five stamps commemorating 40 years since Belgium began a definitive stamp series showing birds illustrated by artist Andre Buzin.

Another Oct. 20 stamp is dedicated to the fight against breast cancer and shows a pink ribbon. The remaining Oct. 20 issue consists of two Christmas stamps.

Definitives scheduled to be issued during the year include updated King Philippe postage stamps on Aug. 25. A new engraving of King Philippe appears on all three stamps, with each stamp having a different background color.

The stamp program is tentative and subject to change. The address of Bpost’s web shop is https://eshop.bpost.be.

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