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The Reversed Oval

by Erik Jensen

One of the brightest jewels of Danish Philately has been handed over to the museum. It was done on 2nd January 2002 at a meeting with the giver, Copenhagen Philatelist Club.


It is an extremely rare variety of one of Denmark’s most common stamps – the two-coloured 8 ore stamp which during the years 1875-1902 covered the domestic postage for letters weighing up to 250 g. The "reversed oval" is so rare that this specimen is the only one known.

The two-coloured stamps

This is what the first Danish stamp series provided with the designation "Denmark" is called. The series was introduced in 1870 with the indication of value "skilling" which in 1875 was changed to "ore". The last stamps of this type were printed in 1905. The stamp was drawn and engraved by Philip C. Batz and printed in 1905. Characteristic of the series was that the neutral frames were printed separately in one colour and the oval piece in the middle with country name and value in a different colour.

Popular Type of Stamp

Through the years the 8 ore stamp was produced in no less than 122 editions of varying size; more than 691 million copies in total. In between many of the reprints the forme was separated and re-assembled. The frames were not entirely symmetrical in both ends so numerous examples are known that one, several, or even all frames in a forme have been assembled reversely. As the paper was sometimes turned the wrong way, several stamps with reversed watermark are known, but the because of the text the ovals were never turned upside down. These irregularities have made two-coloured stamps the favourite concern of Danish philatelists.

The Discovery

The reversed oval was part of the collection of one of Denmark’s greatest collectors of two-coloured stamps, the now deceased High Court Judge in Viborg, Børge Schäffer. He could not determine the stamp on basis of the known characteristics, but through thorough examination of the perforation and comparison with thousands of other stamps the most distinguished expert on two-coloured stamps, Lasse Nielsen, Copenhagen, succeeded in 1975 in establishing that the impossible had actually happened – one of the ovals in the two formes had been turned upside down.

After the death of Schäffer his collection was transferred to Copenhagen Philatelist Club for study purposes, but the club decided that the unique specimen, "the reversed oval" shall be kept in Post & Tele Museum.

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