2019-02-04 Mon

The Faroe Islands celebrates the 100th anniversary of stamps known as the “Chair Leg” provisionals on a souvenir sheet issued January 11. Now an autonomous, self-governing region of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Faroe Islands in 1919 was a county of Denmark and used Danish stamps.

Because of a Jan. 1, 1919, increases of the basic letter rate from 5 ore to 7 ore, 2-ore stamps were needed in the Faroe Islands. The first solution was to bisect 4-ore stamps, but the post office at Torshavn soon ran out of these. The Torshavn postmaster, Rasmus Kristensen Pilgaard, was then given permission to add a 2-ore surcharge to existing 5-ore stamps.

The new souvenir sheet contains two 11-krona stamps with “Essays 1919” in the selvage above them and “1919-2019” below. The two stamps in the sheet show essays on right and part of the chair leg used as a hand stamp to create the provisionals on left.

Image Courtesy: https://www.linns.com

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