05 July 2019
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Denmark offers the collector beautiful designs, relatively cheap stamps and a manageable list of issues to pursue, as our stamp guide reveals.
To be an attractive proposition for the stamp collector, a country should have many different things:
1. The stamp issues should be well designed and have a strict postal purpose, rather than being designed just for collectors
2. The Goldilocks theory should be in play: there should not be too many stamps issued, and there should not be too few stamps issued, rather, it should be just right
3. The stamps have to lend themselves to specialisation by issue, and there have to be detailed catalogues to let collectors know what is available and what is needed. And the stamps have to be affordable
Probably the country that meets all of these criteria best is Denmark. There is only one Danish stamp that sells for more than £1,000 and few that are more than £100. The whole country can be had for well under £4,000, which for a collecting pursuit that could last a lifetime is pretty reasonable. And each of the classic issues lends itself to intense study on its own should you so desire.
Ideas for collecting Denmark stamps
You can collect cancellations (and the Danes kindly used numerals in rings as cancellations on their early stamps, with each number referencing the town from which the canceller was used, #1 for Copenhagen, and so on) to make cancellation collecting easy and fun.
On the late 19th-century Post Horn issues, there are watermark and frame and colour and plate varieties galore, and almost none of them are very expensive, even if they are hard to find. And the 20th century (and later) stamps are among the most beautifully designed and executed engravings that the hobby has to offer.
If this wasn’t enough, Denmark never joined the Euro and isn’t in the habit of demonetising their mint newer issues, so collectors who collect modern Danish stamps always have a postage basis for their stamps, so they have retained much of their value.
DENMARK FACTS
Capital: Copenhagen
Population: 5.7 million
Area: 16,562 sq miles
Official languages: Danish
Currency: Danish krone (DKK)
First stamp: Crown, sword and sceptre, April 1851
