Faroese Postal History
 

Metermarks in the Danish Period


The history of the use of Meter Marks begins during WWII and the several attempts to overcome the problems arising from the difficulty in receiving supplies of postage stamps from Denmark. Two solutions, the Provisional stamps and the FRANCO BETALT handstamps are covered in the WWII section. The third method employed was the importation from Great Britain of a Neopost franking machine (N446). Although imported at the beginning of 1943 the first use was not until 19th May 1943.

No other machine was in use until the early 1950s when the first Francootyp franking machine was acquired by Foroya Banki in Torshavn (D830D).  Three further Francotyp machines were introduced in 1956 followed by the first Hasler machine (B516) in 1958.

As with postal cancellers, 1962 saw the replacement of the Danish spellings of town names with their Faroese equivalent (e.g. Thorshavn became Torshavn and Klaksvig became Klaksvik). By the time of postal independence in January 1975 meter mark usage was quite widespread, with some sixty organisations using them. Postal Independence gave rise to another change as the Faroese indicia was replaced the Danish one, thus  DANMARK was replaced by FOROYAR, etc.  However, unlike with the postage stamps where Danish stamps were immediately replaced completely by their Faroese equivalents, the meter marks were updated slowly throughout 1975 and into 1976. Therefore some Danish meter marks can be found dated well after postal independence in January 1995 (e.g N2394 below).


Danish Meter Marks Hasler (B)


B707 (1962-76)
Postur fra Sjukrakasssanum
Havnar Sjukrakassi
Torshavn
1964-08-14



Danish Meter Marks Francotyp (D)


D830D (1953-60)
Lettercounter
Aktieselsskabet Foroya Banki
Froya Banki, Thorshavn
Thorshavn
1956-05-18

D830D (1953-60)
Lettercounter
Aktieselsskabet Foroya Banki
Froya Banki, Thorshavn
Thorshavn
1959-10-23

D1289 (1956-62)
Lettercounter
Quality Fish
P/f J.F.Kjolbro
Klaksvig
1961-02-16

D1289 (1956-62)
Lettercounter
Quality Fish
P/f J.F.Kjolbro
Klaksvig
1961-03-14

D1508 (1962-75)
Lettercounter
M/S Tjaldur
P/f Skipafelagid
Torshavn
1967-08-1x

D1764 (1962-75)
Torshavn kommuna
Torshavnar Kommuna
Torshavn
1963-06-20

D1999 (1962-71)
Lettercounter
Politi- og retsvaesenet
Landfogeden
Torshavn
1963-6-21



Danish Meter Marks Frama (G)





Danish Meter Marks Krag (K)





Danish Meter Marks Neopost (N)

N2394 (1974-76)
P
E. PIHL & SON
Torshavn
1975-10-17



Danish Meter Marks Pitney-Bowes (PB)





Danish Meter Marks Satas Eksport (SJ)





Danish Meter Marks Postalia (TN)





Postoffice Meter Marks - Boxes





Postoffice Meter Marks




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