Line-Engraved Issues

This article is an overview of the postage stamps and postal history of Denmark. more...

Home
Africa
Asia
Commonwealth/ British...
Great Britain
Booklets
Collections/ Mixture
Commemorative
Covers
Edward VII
Edward VIII
Elizabeth II
First Day Covers
Fiscals/ Revenues
George V
George VI
Local Issues
Officials
Other British Stamps
PHQ Cards
Plate Block/ Multiples
Postage Dues
Presentation Packs
Regional Issues
Sheets
Victoria
Embossed Issues
Line-Engraved Issues
Other Victoria
Penny Blacks
Surface-Printed Issues
Ireland
Latin America
Middle East
Philately/ Postal History
Rest of the World
Thematics
United States

Early postal history

Denmark's postal history begins with an ordinance of 24 December 1624 by King Christian IV, establishing a national postal service . This service consisted of nine main routes, and was to be operated by the mayor of Copenhagen and several guilds. Initially the mail was carried by foot, with riders being used after 1640.

The service was turned over to a Paul Klingenberg on 16 July 1653, who introduced a number of innovations, including mail coaches able to carry parcels, and service to Norway. He ran the service until 14 March 1685, when he handed it over to Count Christian Gyldenløve, a nine-year-old son of King Christian V. The Gyldenløve family continued in control until 1711; in 1694 new routes and rates were established. The state took over control in 1711.

The first steamship carrying mail was the SS Caledonia, which began carrying mail between Copenhagen and Kiel on 1 July 1819.

The classic stamps

The first postage stamps were introduced on 1 April 1851, by a law passed on 11 March. The first value was a four (Fire) rigsbankskilling stamp printed in brown, a square design with a crown, sword, and sceptre in the center. This was followed on 1 May by a 2rbs value in blue using the denomination as the design. Both stamps were typographed, watermarked (with a crown), and imperforate, and distinctive for having a yellow-brown burelage printed on top of the design. The 2rbs prepaid the local postage rate in København, while the 4rbs was the national rate. Four rbs stamps were introduced on 1st May 1851 for use in the Duchy of Slesvig.

The design and first printings were made by M. W. Ferslew, but he died and the subsequent printing was by H. H. Thiele, whose firm printed Denmark's stamps for the next 80 years.

Few of the 2rbs values were printed, and today copies are priced at around 3,000 US$ unused and $1,000 used. The 4rbs was more common, with unused at $700 and used copies at just $40.

In 1854 the currency was renamed to just "skilling" and "rigsdaler", and new stamps were printed, still square and using the coat of arms, but with the new currency names, and the inscriptions abbreviated so that they could be read as either Danish or German ("FRM" instead of "FRIMAERKE" for instance). Values of 2s, 4s, 8s, and 16s were issued at various times from 1854 to 1857. In 1858 the dotted pattern in the background was replaced with wavy lines, in 1863 a larger crown was used in the watermark and the stamps were rouletted.

Along with postage stamps, the use of numeral cancellations was adopted, consisting of a number with several concentric circles, each number corresponding to a particular post office. "1" was Copenhagen, "2" the office in Hamburg, "5" Aarhus, and so forth.

Read more at Wikipedia.org