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Of Topical Interest

By Erik Jensen

Yugoslavian Postage Stamps

From 4th October to 31st December 1994, the museum is exhibiting the catalogue collection of postage stamps from the former republic of Yugoslavia and the other countries, which jointly formed the state.

Yugoslavia was founded after the end of World War I in 1918 by a union of the countries Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, and Dalmatia as well as some minor areas of Austria and Hungary. In the early days – until 1921- Yugoslavia was divided into three postal areas: Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia. From 1921, stamps were issued for the United Yugoslavia, which was a kingdom in those days. During World War II Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia were again issuing their own stamps. The republic was introduced after the end of the war.

The museum is showing the stamps from as well the United Yugoslavia (until 1922) as from the above-mentioned countries and territories (before 1921 and 1941-1944). We are not yet able to show the new emissions from the again independent countries, which have emerged during the last two years in the wake of the deplorable civil war in Yugoslavia.

Still on Display

The stamps of Finland and the Aland Islands (mentioned in the MuseumsPosten no. 2) are still on display until end 1994.

Village Churches and Richard Mortensen

For the rest of the year, the museum is presenting drafts, designs, and proofs of the 50-year-old- Danish stamps series featuring village churches. The churches are from Ejby near Køge, Østerlars on the island of Bornholm, and Hvidberg in Thy.

Also a silver jubilee is commemorated. In 1969, a stamp was issued with a non-figurative motif by Richard Mortensen. The stamp was meant to be Denmark’s first three-coloured stamp, but as the technique with multi-coloured stamps was new, some practical problems with the printing occurred and it was "overtaken on the inside" by a stamp featuring the Dannebrog on the occasion of the flag’s 750th anniversary. It appears clearly from the three preserved sheets of the discarded impression of the non-figurative stamp why this version of the stamp was not issued. .

Classic Danish Stamps

From 4th October 1994 to 30th March 1995 the museum is exhibiting a special collection of classic Danish stamps.

G.A. Hagemann (1877-1971), Master of the Royal Hunt, Bachelor of Engineering, and lord of a manor, was a philatelist specialized in classic Danish stamps, which he treated in a lot of books and articles in Danish, English, and German. Hagemann was among the first who seriously dealt with the two-coloured stamps issued during the years 1871-1905.

During the last half of the 1950’s G.A. Hagemann entrusted his special collections to the Post & Telegraph Museum. In the course of time they have been exhibited on many occasions and comparative studies of the collections are still being made. Even though recent studies have demonstrated some errors in his printing determinations, the museum has abstained from re-editing them, simply because Hagemann’s collections were ground-breaking for our knowledge today.

The smallest of G.A. Hagemann’s stamp collections contains 36 album sheets only and comprises Denmark’s two-coloured stamps with indication of value in "skilling" from the years 1871-1874. But what a collection! Page after page of colourful stamps; loose as well as on letters. It is easy to understand why many collectors consider the two-coloured stamps to be Denmark’s finest series.

Iceland on Stamps

From 3rd January to 30th March 1995, the turn has come to Iceland in the succession of biannual presentations of postage stamps from the other Nordic countries.

The island in the North Atlantic got its own postal service as late as in 1873. The first post offices in Iceland (Reykjavik, Seydisfjördur, and Berufjördur) were established by the Danish Postal Service in 1870 and 1871, and until the independent Icelandic postal service started working, Iceland was a part of the Danish postal area and used Danish stamps. In 1918, Iceland obtained independence, but the state had a personal union with Denmark until the republic was founded 1944.

The museum’s catalogue collection comprises all Icelandic stamps from 1873 till today. From the beginning and until 1933 the Icelandic stamps were printed in Denmark in the same printing house, H.H. Thiele in Copenhagen, which also printed Danish and Danish-West Indian stamps. So it is hardly a coincidence that Iceland’s first stamps series shows great similarity to contemporaneous, two-coloured stamps from Denmark and the Danish West Indies.

Postage Stamps from the UN

From 3rd January to 30th March, the museum is exhibiting its collections of stamps from the UN offices in New York, Geneva, and Vienna.

The United Nations (UN) was formed in 1945 in replacement of the League of Nations which had had its day as the world’s police force at the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The main task of the UN is to maintain world peace.

The UN head quarter is situated in New York and has since 1951 issued their own stamps with indication of value in US dollars. In the beginning these stamps were only valid inside the UN building, but they have later obtained validity for stamping all over the world.

In 1969, the European office of the UN in Geneva also obtained permission to issue their own stamps with indication of value in Swiss francs, and in 1979 the turn came to the UN office in Vienna which has since then been issuing stamps with indication of value in Austrian schillings.

Postage Stamps from the USA

Also the collection of stamps from the USA is on display during this period (3rd January-30th March 1995). The first common stamps of the states on the North American continent, which today have become the United States, were issued already in 1847. The museum’s collection even contains some copies of the so-called "postmaster stamps" from 1845, which were semi-official forerunners of the actual postage stamps. By the way the stamps in the collection prove that not everything is big in America; the first newspaper stamps from 1865 are, however, not less than gigantic. Come and see for yourselves!

Latest News!

The Post & Telegraph Museum will have a stand at the "Stamps in Forum ’94" fair in Copenhagen from 10th to 14th November 1994. Among other things we will be selling the sticker which is normally only obtainable when visiting the museum.



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