Iceland Stamp Facts

Iceland Stamp Facts

    As time allows, I will relate facts about the Stamps of Iceland that will help you to learn about some of the Iceland Issues. I hope that if you find this interesting and if you have any questions that you will send me an email.

Interesting 1961 Variety

On the 17th of June, 1961 Iceland issued a set of stamps honoring Jon Sigurdsson. There was an interesting variety which is listed in the Facit Catalog as #383v. There is a vertical line through the "D" in Sigurdsson on the 50 Aur red issue. This occured on the stamp No. 90 in the sheet. Normal is shown on the left and Variety is shown on the right. These can be found in dealer's stocks, also on the lower right block of the sheet.  Fun to look for them!



1952 Parliament Building Issue


This stamp was issued on April 1, 1952. It was produced by steel engraving and features the Parliament building in Rejavik. This is indeed a beautiful stamp and I think compares in beauty to stamps i.e. the Canadian Bluenose.  Listed as Facit 311 and Scott 273. There were only 150,000 copies produced. They make a good addition to your collection in either mint or used condition.




King Christian IX  1902-1904 Issues


Issues with the portrait of King Christian IX were produced in 1902-1904. There were 13 Values of regular stamps and 7 Values of stamps for Official usage.  The designs are identical except for the right hand frame lettering. The regular stamps show the wording "Frimerki" and the official stamps show "Pjonusta". Examples are shown here. The 10 Aur value is the official issue and the 25 Aur value is the regular issue.




King  Christian X Comes to the Throne in 1912

                                
Upon the death of Frederik VIII on May 14th, 1912, Christian X became the monarch of Denmark. The current issue of Iceland stamps at this time portrayed Frederick VIII. Due to the affects of World War I, a new issue of stamps depicting the new monarch was not issued until February, 1920 which was almost six years after the arrival of the new monarch. This issue of stamps were produced by typography by H.H. Thiele of Copenhagen. The total issue consisted of both single color and bi-color denominations. Due to the heavy usage of these stamps, there were several printings produced and some of designs were redrawn thus producing an issue that can be identified by the central viginette of King Christian. Due to the long term of usage and the many printings, this might be an interesting issue for study regarding plate flaws, printing flaws, etc.




    Some of the other issues of Iceland that will be covered here shortly are:
  • 1921-1925 Overprinted Issues
  • 1925 Landscape Stamps
  •  First Icelandic Airmail Stamps.
    If you have any issues that you have questions about, please email me.



1930 Iceland "Falcon" Airmail

This was issued a a part of the Iceland Festival of Stamps issues.  The stamp is unique in that it is the only Triangular stamp issued by Iceland for this period. It features the Falcon and is a very popular airmail stamp. Estimated quanities of issue are 300,000 and 24,000 for the airmail official.   The stamp was also overprinted for Official Airmail usage.  The stamps are identified as Scott C3 and CO1. Facit numbers are 188 and Tj74.  Be sure to add both of these stamps to your collection. Value of the used is much higher than the mint issues. The stamp on the right is overprinted for Official Usage.





25th Anniversary of Christian X - A Key Issue


On the 15th of May, 1937 the Anniversary of King Christian X celebrated 25 years on the throne of Denmark. To celebrate this anniversary, Iceland issued a set of stamps and a souvenir sheet. Both of these issues were of very low quantities. The souvenir sheet was printed in typography. The issuance number of the sheets was 55,000.  These sheet are one of the key issues in this period of Iceland philately. It is recomended to obtain one for your collection. They are hard to find in either Mint unmounted or Used condtion. They remained valid for usage until April 30th, 1938.