http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk APRIL 2016 49Peter Sondhelm, Chair, Faroe Islands Study Circle
describes an early airmail coverLand, air or sea?
This 1935 cover from the Faroe Islands to Copenhagen shows some of the practical aspects of how
post operated in the islands. A variety of routes could be employed, making for fascinating postal
history. So is this airmail that went by ship or ships-mail that went by air?
During the Second World War, the British forces occupying the Faroes constructed the islands’
first airstrip (where the current airport is located). So how did the islands have airmail in the mid-
1930s? Though franked with a Danish airmail stamp, covering the airmail supplement, this cover
(sent by Oscar Kaaber, the dentist in Tórshavn) was carried by boat to Scotland, a routing which
possibly halved the time taken for it to reach its destination. A paquebot handstamp and a machine
cancel were both applied in Edinburgh on 28 August. The cover was then flown to Denmark
where Copenhagen Airport and Copenhagen V postmarks were applied (on the cover’s reverse) just
one day later, on the 29th.
Despite some earlier attempts, it was not until the 1960s that regular flights to and from the Faroes
were successfully established. So, similar mail can be found after the war, sometimes also travelling via
Bergen, Norway, as an alternative routing.much about how the islanders look
back at those wartime years. Thanks
to the good offices of the UPU,
postal supplies from Copenhagen still
reached the islands during the war
years. However, during the first year
after the occupation, these supplies
were few and far between, and a postal
rate increase on 10 July, 1940 created
a stamp shortage later in the year. As
a result, five overprinted stamps were
produced locally in 1940 and 1941.. The first Faroe Islands’ stamps,
showing the name ‘Føroyar’ (meaning
Sheep Islands), were issued by the
Danish postal authorities on 30
January, 1975. It remains a popular
set, with eleven of the fourteen stamps
being engraved by Czesław Słania.
The Faroes’ independent postal
service, Postverk Føroya, was created
on 1 April, 1976. Now called Posta,
it became a stand-alone commercial
enterprise in 2009. By the end of
2015, the Faroes had issued 821
stamps in their stamp-issuing history.
Słania’s hundredth, and final, Faroese
stamp was issued in 2003. Many
stamps feature the work of Faroese
artists and designers and, with a
few exceptions, the stamps show the
islands’ fascinating geography, history,
culture, commerce and natural history.
Though the Faroe Islands are the
UK’s neighbours, few people seem to
know anything about the islands, often
including their whereabouts. Getting
better acquainted with our neighbours
can be a rewarding experience.
Above: Porkeri on Suðuroy, the southernmost island
(Creative Commons, Erik Christensen)p49 Why collect - Faroe Islands.indd 49 01/03/2016 11:33