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This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Iceland. Regular mail service in Iceland was first established by a charter of 13 May 1776, and on 1 January 1873, Iceland issued its first postage stamps. 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, and inscribed ÍSLAND. All are scarce or rare, and used copies are especially hard to find.
In 1876 the currency changed to eyrir (pl. aurar) and króna. 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 overprinting of 5-aurur stamps with þrir or þrir / 3; these are rare, and unfortunately excellent counterfeits have been produced.
In 1902 the numeral stamps were officially withdrawn and declared invalid for postage, since a new set depicting King Christian IX was to be issued.[1] But then the Minister of Iceland changed his mind for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 one US dollar or one euro, others are among the great rarities of Icelandic philately. There are also many inverts and typographical errors to be found.
25 aurar "Í Gildi", 1902
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.
1911 saw Iceland's first commemorative stamps, a set honoring Jón Sigurðsson, the leader of Iceland's independence movement in the 19th century, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.[2] 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 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 stamp was issued in 1928; it was produced by overprinting a crude image of an airplane on a regular 10-aurar stamp.
Icelandic 10 Aur stamp from 1930 - The 1000th Anniversary of the Althing
In 1930, Iceland celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the Althing 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 ViennaAustria, 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, and were not resumed afterwards.
In May 1931, stamps were overprinted Zeppelin / 1931 for use on mail sent via the airshipGraf Zeppelin, which visited Reykjavík on 1 July.[3] The zeppelin did not actually land, but it got low enough to pass mail bags up and down.
Also in 1931, a new issue came out depicting the Gullfosswaterfall. In addition, stamps of the 1920 issue, but with the vignette 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.
Hekla eruption of 1947 on Icelandic 25-aurar stamp of 1948
In 1938 a dramatic series featured images of Geysir, the namesake of all other geysers.
Iceland again honored Jón 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[2] and the centenary of the deaths of Jón and his wife, Ingibjorg Einarsdóttir, in 1979).
In 1948, the eruption of the volcanoHekla was marked by another set of dramatic images.
After independence, Iceland pursued a relatively restrained stamp-issuing policy, bringing out about 20 new stamps each year. There were annual Christmas and Europa issues, and sets depicting local scenery, flora, and fauna, as well as heritage and the works of local artists.
Iceland Post announced in 2020 that it would cease issuing stamps.[4] The postal service said that it would continue to sell its stamps in stock to customers and may reprint older stamps if necessary to replenish its stock.[4][5] Nevertheless, in 2023, Iceland Post released a souvenir sheet consisting of four stamps in order to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the country's first postage stamp.[6]
An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage or revenue stamp, postal stationery, banknote or ticket 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. Well-recognized varieties include commemorative overprints which are produced for their public appeal and command significant interest in the field of philately.
An airmail stamp is a postage stamp intended to pay either an airmail fee that is charged in addition to the surface rate, or the full airmail rate, for an item of mail to be transported by air.
This is an introduction to the postal and philatelic history of Italy.
This is an overview of the postage stamps and postal history of Australia.
Greece's first postal service was founded in 1828, at the time of Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. This initial service continued mail delivery and, later, the issuing of postage stamps until 1970. It was then succeeded by the Hellenic Post S.A., which remains Greece's official postal provider. The first Greek stamps were issued in 1861; by then, the postal service had expanded to operate 97 branches.
The Far Eastern Republic, sometimes called the Chita Republic, existed from April 1920 to November 1922 in the easternmost part of Siberia. It was formed from the Amur, Transbaikal, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and Primorye regions. In theory, it extended from Lake Baikal to Vladivostok but, in May 1921, the Priamur and Maritime Provinces seceded. Although nominally independent, it was largely controlled by the RSFSR and its main purpose was to be a democratic buffer state between the RSFSR and the territories occupied by Japan during the Russian Civil War to avoid war with Japan. Initially, its capital was Verkhneudinsk, but from October 1920 it was Chita. On 15 November 1922, after the war ended and the Japanese withdrew from Vladivostok, the Far Eastern Republic was annexed by Soviet Russia.
The history of the postage stamps and postal history of China is complicated by the gradual decay of Imperial China and the years of civil war and Japanese occupation in the 1930s and 1940s. In modern times, postal delivery is handled by China Post.
The postage stamps of Ireland are issued by the postal operator of the independent Irish state. Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland when the world's first postage stamps were issued in 1840. These stamps, and all subsequent British issues, were used in Ireland until the new Irish Government assumed power in 1922. Beginning on 17 February 1922, existing British stamps were overprinted with Irish text to provide some definitives until separate Irish issues became available. Following the overprints, a regular series of definitive stamps was produced by the new Department of Posts and Telegraphs, using domestic designs. These definitives were issued on 6 December 1922; the first was a 2d stamp, depicting a map of Ireland. Since then new images, and additional values as needed, have produced nine definitive series of different designs.
Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone is a subject that covers the postal system, postage stamps used and mail sent to and from the Panama Canal Zone from 1904 up until October 1978, after the United States relinquished its authority of the Zone in compliance with the treaty it reached with Panama.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Cuba.
Numerous Chinese stamps depict Sun Yat-sen, and a representative collection can be acquired with little trouble. These may conveniently be divided as the definitives, provincial issues, overprints, and commemoratives, but there is much crossover between these categories.
The story of the postage stamps and postal history of Yugoslavia officially begins with the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on 1 December 1918.
The postal history of Malta began in the early modern period, when pre-adhesive mail was delivered to foreign destinations by privately owned ships for a fee. The earliest known letter from Malta, sent during the rule of the Order of St John, is dated 1532. The first formal postal service on the islands was established by the Order in 1708, with the post office being located at the Casa del Commun Tesoro in Valletta. The first postal markings on mail appeared later on in the 18th century.
The postal history of Turkey and its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, dates to the 18th century when foreign countries maintained courier services through their consular offices in the Empire. Although delayed in the development of its own postal service, in 1863 the Ottoman Empire became the second independent country in Asia to issue adhesive postage stamps, and in 1875, it became a founding member of the General Postal Union, soon to become the Universal Postal Union. The Ottoman Empire became the Republic of Turkey in 1923, and in the following years, its postal service became more modernized and efficient and its postage stamps expertly designed and manufactured.
Admirals are a series of definitive stamps issued by three countries of the British Commonwealth that show King George V of Great Britain and the British Dominions. The stamps are referred to as the Admirals because King George is depicted in his Admiral of the Fleet uniform. The stamps were issued by Canada in 1911–1928, New Zealand in 1926, and Rhodesia in 1913–24.
The postage stamps and postal history of Papua New Guinea originated in the two colonial administrations on the eastern part of the island of New Guinea and continued until their eventual merger, followed by independence in 1975.
Belize started as the colony of British Honduras, formally established in the 17th century but disputed through the 18th century.
The Halfpenny Yellow is the first postage stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Malta. Depicting Queen Victoria, it was only valid for local postage and it was originally issued on 1 December 1860. It was the only stamp issued by Malta for two and a half decades, and during this period various reprints were made with differences in colour shade, perforation and watermark. When control of Malta's postal service was transferred to the island's colonial government on 1 January 1885, the stamp was withdrawn and it was replaced by a set of definitive stamps.
The South African Republic (ZAR), later known as Transvaal issued revenue stamps from 1875 to around 1950. There were a number of different stamps for several taxes.
References
↑ "Ný frímerki". Reykjavík (in Icelandic). 18 October 1902. p.2. Retrieved 23 May 2022– via Tímarit.is.
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