Postage stamps and postal history of Iceland
Encyclopedia
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Iceland. Regular mail service in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 was first established by a charter of 13 May 1776, and on 1 January 1873, Iceland issued its first postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s. The design was the same as for the Danish numeral issue of the time (numeral of value surmounted by a crown all inside an oval), denominated with values ranging from 2 to 16 skilling
Skilling
Skilling may refer to:* Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron Corporation* Tom Skilling, meteorologist in Chicago, Illinois* Michael Skilling, former Attorney General of England and Wales* Skilling, a historical form of currency...

, and inscribed ÍSLAND. All are scarce or rare, and used copies are especially hard to find.

Chronology

In 1876 the currency
Currency
In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...

 changed to eyrir (pl. aurar) and króna
Icelandic króna
The króna is the currency of Iceland. The króna is technically subdivided into 100 aurar , but in practice this subdivision is no longer used....

. This meant new stamps, which were issued beginning in August. The same basic design, with some changes of color and perforation, continued in use through 1901. In 1897 a shortage of 3-aurar stamps led to the overprint
Overprint
An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...

ing of 5-aurur stamps with þrir or þrir / 3; these are rare, and unfortunately excellent counterfeit
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...

s have been produced.

In 1902 the numeral stamps were officially withdrawn and declared invalid for postage, since a new set depicting King Christian IX
Christian IX of Denmark
Christian IX was King of Denmark from 16 November 1863 to 29 January 1906.Growing up as a prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior branch of the House of Oldenburg which had ruled Denmark since 1448, Christian was originally not in the immediate line of succession to the Danish...

 was to be issued. But then the Minister of Iceland changed his mind for reasons which are still unclear and had the numerals reissued, overprinted Í GILDI / '02--'03 in red or black, the overprint indicating that they were still valid. While some of the overprints are common, costing the collector less than a US$ or euro, others are among the great rarities of Icelandic philately. There are also many inverts and typographical errors to be found.

In 1906 King Christian died, and so in 1907 a new series of stamps came out, featuring overlapping profiles of Christian IX and King Frederick VIII
Frederick VIII of Denmark
Frederick VIII was King of Denmark from 1906 to 1912.-Early life:Frederick was born on 3 June 1843 in the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen as Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a junior male line of the House of Oldenburg descended from Christian III of Denmark and who had...

.

1911 saw Iceland's first commemorative stamp
Commemorative stamp
A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event or person. The subject of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike definitive stamps which normally depict the subject along with the...

s, a set honoring Jón Sigurðsson
Jón Sigurðsson
Jón Sigurðsson was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement.Born at Hrafnseyri, near Arnarfjörður in the Westfjords area of Iceland, he was the son of a pastor, Sigurður Jónsson. He moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1833 to study grammar and history at the university there...

 on the 100th anniversary of his birth. In February of the following year, a set was issued with Frederick's silhouette. Although Frederick died in May 1912, no new stamps were issued until 1915, when another set of the 1907 design was issued in new colors.

King Christian X
Christian X of Denmark
Christian X was King of Denmark from 1912 to 1947 and the only King of Iceland between 1918 and 1944....

 first appeared on Icelandic stamps in a new set of 1920. Periodic stamp shortages plagued the postal service during the 1920s, and locally surcharged stamps were produced in 1921, 1922, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1929, and 1930. The first pictorial, non-portrait stamps were issued in 1925, a set of five showing views of Iceland. Iceland's first airmail
Airmail
Airmail is mail that is transported by aircraft. It typically arrives more quickly than surface mail, and usually costs more to send...

 stamp was issued in 1928; it was produced by overprinting a crude image of an airplane on a regular 10-aurar stamp.

In 1930, Iceland celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the Althing
Althing
The Alþingi, anglicised variously as Althing or Althingi, is the national parliament of Iceland. The Althingi is the oldest parliamentary institution in the world still extant...

 with an attractive series of 15 regular and 5 airmail stamps featuring a wide variety of historical, mythological, and scenic images. In 1928 Icelandic authorities received a proposal from the 'Society of the Friends of Iceland' Verein der Islandsfreunde in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, proposing to produce these stamps as a gift to Iceland for the Millenary celebrations. Against the advice of the Head Postmaster, Sigurður Briem, the Icelandic government accepted the offer to produce 813,000 kronur's worth of stamps, 600,000 kronur's worth of which were to go to Iceland, and the rest to the Society for its trouble. Iceland's share of the stamps were delivered in December 1929, but in 1930 it became apparent that a fraud had been committed and a much larger than authorised number of stamps had been produced, by the insertion of the figure '1' before the value in the print order. Police investigations had not been completed before the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and were not resumed afterwards.

In May 1931, stamps were overprinted Zeppelin / 1931 for use on mail sent via the airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...

 Graf Zeppelin
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was a German built and operated passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a Graf or Count in the German nobility. During its operating life,...

, which visited Reykjavík
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...

 on 1 July. The zeppelin did not actually land, there being no facilities, but it got low enough to pass mail bags up and down.

Also in 1931, a new issue came out depicting the Gullfoss
Gullfoss
Gullfoss is a waterfall located in the canyon of Hvítá river in southwest Iceland.Gullfoss is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country. The wide Hvítá rushes southward...

 waterfall
Waterfall
A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...

. In addition, stamps of the 1920 issue, but with the vignette
Vignette (philately)
In philately, the vignette is the central part of a postage stamp design, such as, a monarch's head or a pictorial design, which often shades off gradually to the edges of the stamp....

 of the king much more finely engraved, started appearing periodically, through 1937.

Iceland's first semi-postal stamps appeared in 1933. The subjects of the three stamps depicted categories of recipients; rescue workers, children, and the elderly.

In 1938 a dramatic series featured images of Geysir
Geysir
Geysir , sometimes known as The Great Geysir, was the first geyser described in a printed source and the first known to modern Europeans. The English word geyser derives from Geysir. The name Geysir itself is derived from the Icelandic verb geysa, "to gush", the verb from Old Norse...

, the namesake of all other geyser
Geyser
A geyser is a spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by a vapour phase . The word geyser comes from Geysir, the name of an erupting spring at Haukadalur, Iceland; that name, in turn, comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, "to gush", the verb...

s.

Iceland again honored Jon Sigurðsson on its issue marking the independent republic established on 17 June 1944 (and again on the 150th anniversary of his birth on 17 June 1961 and the centenary of the deaths of Sigurðsson and his wife, Ingibjorg Einarsdóttir, in 1979).

In 1948, the eruption of the volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

 Hekla
Hekla
Hekla is a stratovolcano located in the south of Iceland with a height of . Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes; over 20 eruptions have occurred in and around the volcano since 874. During the Middle Ages, Icelanders called the volcano the "Gateway to Hell."Hekla is part of a volcanic...

 was marked by another set of dramatic images.

Since independence, Iceland has pursued a relatively restrained stamp-issuing policy, bringing out about 20 new stamps each year. There are annual Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 and Europa
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 issues, and sets depicting local scenery, flora, and fauna, as well as heritage and the works of local artists.

Sources


External links

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