On December 8, 1962, the Belgian Post intended to issue stamps with charity for the fight against tuberculosis. The stamps featured Belgian Queens. Each stamp also had a fitting monogram imprinted. One of the stamps featured Queen Louise-Marie (1812-1850) with the monogram “ML”. Therefore the letters were the wrong way round. In Belgium the Queen was known as “Louise”.

The mistake was overall recognised in time but a special post office in the Museum of Fine Arts had already started to sell the stamps. The Belgian Post therefore decided to print the stamps again with a corrected monogram, this time stylish “L”, but also would issue both stamps in order to avoid creating a “rarity”.

Left: Stamp with wrong monogram

Right: Stamp with corrected monogram

Stamps not affected