Denmark's postal history begins with an ordinance of 24 December 1624 by King Christian IV, establishing a national postal service . This service consisted of nine main routes, and was to be operated by the mayor of Copenhagen and several guilds. Initially the mail was carried by foot, with riders being used after 1640.
The service was turned over to a Paul Klingenberg on 16 July 1653, who introduced a number of innovations, including mail coaches able to carry parcels, and service to Norway. He ran the service until 14 March 1685, when he handed it over Grev Christaars Gyldenlove, a nine-year-old son of King Christian V. The Gyldenlove family continued in control until 1711; in 1694 new routes and rates were established. The state took over control in 1711.
The first steamship carrying mail was the SS Caledonia, which began carrying mail between Copenhagen and Kiel on 1 July 1819.
The first postage stamps were introduced on 1 April 1851, by a law passed on 11 March. The first value was a four (Fire) rigsbank skilling stamp printed in brown, a square design with a crown, sword, and sceptre in the center. This was followed on 1 May by a 2rs value in blue using the denomination as the design. Both stamps were typographed, watermarked (with a crown), and imperforate, and distinctive for having a yellow-brown burelage printed on top of the design.
The design and first printings were made by M. W. Ferslew, but he died and the subsequent printing was by H. H. Thiele, whose firm printed Denmark's stamps for the next 80 years.
Few of the 2rs values were printed, and today copies are priced at around 3,000 US$ unused and $1,000 used. The 4rs was more common, with unused at $700 and used copies at just $40.
In 1854 the currency was renamed to just "skilling" and "rigsdaler", and new stamps were printed, still square and using the coat of arms, but with the new currency names, and the inscriptions abbreviated so that they could be read as either Danish or German ("FRM" instead of "FRIMAERKE" for instance). Values of 2s, 4s, 8s, and 16s were issued at various times from 1854 to 1857. In 1858 the dotted pattern in the background was replaced with wavy lines, in 1863 a larger crown was used in the watermark and the stamps were rouletted.
Along with postage stamps, the use of numeral cancellations was adopted, consisting of a number with several concentric circles, each number corresponding to a particular post office. "1" was Copenhagen, "2" the office in Hamburg, "5" Aarhus, and so forth.
The Second War of Schleswig in 1864 was a traumatic loss for Denmark, and immediately after it a new issue of stamps featured the traditional symbols of royalty more prominently than the previous issues. Values of 2s, 3s, 4s, 8s, and 16s came out between May 1864 and 1868. These were the first Danish stamps to be perforated.
In 1870 the first of the long-running "numeral" issue appeared. The design was an oval with the denomination in in large numerals in the center, surrounded by an ornate frame in a different color. The frame is very nearly symmetric, but not entirely, and the sharp-eyed can identify the stamps with inverted frames. Some of the inverts are quite common, the employees at the printing plant presumably also having difficulties knowing which way was up.
In 1873, the currency was changed to the decimal kroner, which necessitated new stamps. The perforation spacing was changed in 1895, and the watermark in 1902.
Meanwhile, in 1882 the Universal Postal Union standardized on particular colors of stamps for international mail. The "Arms type" was designed to meet this requirement; the 5 øre printed in green, and the 20 øre in blue, followed up in 1885 by a 10 øre in red.
In 1904, King Christian IX became the first king of Denmark to be depicted on a stamp.
In the following year, a new type of numeral design appeared for the lower values - denomination in an oval with three wavy lines on each side, representing the three waters separating the largest Danish islands. This design proved so popular that variations on it remain in use as of 2003.
In 1907, the Christian IX design was updated with a portrait of the new King, Frederick VIII.
In 1912, several types of stamps were surcharged to 35 øre. In the same year, Denmark's first pictorial stamp was a 5-kroner issue depicting the Copenhagen General Post Office.
King Christian X appeared in profile between 1913 and 1928, in a long-lived series that featured a number of color and value changes.
In 1918, a need for 27 øre value resulted in surcharges on newspaper stamps, some of which are scarce, with prices today of up to 200 US$.
On 5 October 1920, Denmark's first commemorative stamps, a set of three pictorials, marked the reunion of northern Schleswig with Denmark following a plebiscite. 1924 saw commemoratives for the 300th anniversary of the postal service, and in 1926 the original two designs were adapted for an issue noting the 75th anniversary of their introduction.Early postal history
The classic stamps
Post-war issue
Numeral issues
Early 20th century