diff --git a/src/OpenMesh/Core/Mesh/Handles.hh b/src/OpenMesh/Core/Mesh/Handles.hh
index 0c8c21c4..4871996d 100644
--- a/src/OpenMesh/Core/Mesh/Handles.hh
+++ b/src/OpenMesh/Core/Mesh/Handles.hh
@@ -144,6 +144,15 @@ struct FaceHandle : public BaseHandle
 };
 
 
+/// Handle type for meshes to simplify some template programming
+struct MeshHandle : public BaseHandle
+{
+  explicit MeshHandle(int _idx=-1) : BaseHandle(_idx) {}
+};
+
+
+
+
 //=============================================================================
 } // namespace OpenMesh
 //=============================================================================
diff --git a/src/OpenMesh/Core/Utils/Property.hh b/src/OpenMesh/Core/Utils/Property.hh
index fb97f81c..71e2f86f 100644
--- a/src/OpenMesh/Core/Utils/Property.hh
+++ b/src/OpenMesh/Core/Utils/Property.hh
@@ -545,7 +545,7 @@ struct MPropHandleT : public BasePropHandleT<T>
 {
   typedef T                       Value;
   typedef T                       value_type;
-  typedef void                    Handle;
+  typedef MeshHandle              Handle;
 
   explicit MPropHandleT(int _idx=-1) : BasePropHandleT<T>(_idx) {}
   explicit MPropHandleT(const BasePropHandleT<T>& _b) : BasePropHandleT<T>(_b) {}