Stamp & Coin Mart - April 2016_

48 APRIL 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk

N

ot many philatelic

societies can claim to have

inspired a stamp issue.

However, in 2002 and on

behalf of the Faroe Islands Study Circle

I asked the Faroe Islands’ postal service

if it would be marking the centenary

of eight of the islands’ post offices the

following year. We hoped for a special

cover or possibly a special handstamp.

But an attractive miniature sheet

(below) was added to the 2003 stamp

programme showing an archive photo

of each village where the post office was

celebrating its centenary. And with first-

day handstamps too!

The islands’ first post office opened

in Tórshavn, the main town, on 1

March, 1870. From then until January

1975 the Faroes used Danish stamps.

This group of eighteen islands (all but

one of which are inhabited), about half

way between Shetland and Iceland, are

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Faroe Islands Study Circle, secretary Norman Hudson provides

an introduction to collecting the stamps of the remote islands, which have much to interest the

philatelist, while society members choose their favourite Faroese stamps and covers

Collect by country

still part of Denmark but have been

largely self-governing since 1948. The

population is currently 49,500, with

about 17,600 in Tórshavn.

Danish-style cancels were used in the

Faroes until 1988. For many years they

showed only the Danish version of the

place name but a radical change was

made in 1962 when they were replaced

by their Faroese equivalent. At its

simplest, Thorshavn became Tórshavn.

Other changes were more notable,

Trangisvaag to Tvøroyri, for instance.

It can be argued that the first

Faroese postage stamps were issued

in 1919. When Denmark increased

postal rates on 1 January, limited

stocks were available in the Faroes

to make up the new rates. Postal

officials in Tórshavn were authorised

to use bisected 4 øre stamps and later

bisected 4 øre frankings cut from

newspaper wrappers. When the supply

of these became low, 5 øre stamps

were individually overprinted by

hand with the value ‘2 ØRE’. Many

collectors like to have examples of the

bisects and overprint, ideally used on

dated cover, as an important part of

the Faroes’ unique postal history.

Events in the Second World War

led to further provisional postage

stamps for the Faroes. German forces

invaded Denmark on 9 April, 1940;

four days later British forces occupied

the Faroes and a British garrison

remained until 1945. A two-stamp

Faroese issue in 2005 marked the

sixtieth anniversary of the end of ‘the

Friendly Occupation’, which says

Philately in the Faroes

Along with bisected

Danish stamps issued in

the same year, the 1919

‘2 ØRE’ overprint on

Danish 5 øre stamps are

widely considered to be

the fi rst Faroes stamps.

The fi rst stamps showing

the name ‘Føroyar’

(meaning Sheep Islands),

were issued by the

Danish postal authorities

in January 1975

This miniature sheet

of 2003, marking the

centenary of eight post

offi ces, was produced

following a request

made by the Faroe

Islands Study Circle

p49 Why collect - Faroe Islands.indd 48 01/03/2016 15:46