Norwegian Post Horn Stamps

**Updated September 23, 2021

***Norwegian post horn stamps are notoriously difficult to date based on the smallest details. The chronology below is as best I can ascertain and based on dates told to me by dealers. I will attempt to update and correct as I learn more.

This is part of an ongoing series dedicated to post horn stamps. The instrument used to be played when a mail carrier arrived or departed from a post office. Now it is more commonly used as a symbol on postal logos, letter boxes, and on postage stamps. Make sure to check out this post about the instrument and featuring some of my post horn stamps from around the world. You can also see my post horn stamps from Italy, Austria, Sweden, and Hungary. Make sure to also check out my general article about post horns!

If there is one country though that is most associated with post horn stamps, it is Norway. On Christmas Day 1871, Norway introduced a postage stamp featuring a post horn surmounted with a crown. Some variation of this design has been in use in Norway ever since. There are collectors who specialize in acquiring all of the possible permutations of Norwegian post horn stamps. This post features the Norwegian post horn stamps in my personal collection.

A couple of excellent sources that delve into this extraordinary musical stamp history are:

The Philatelic Database: World’s Oldest Stamp Design
The Postal Museum: The Sound of the Post Horn
A Stamp A Day: The Post Horn

The Stamps

The easiest way to identify stamps from the initial series of Norwegian post horns is the skillings denomination. It was the only issue to use skillings on a post horn stamp. The three skilling stamp was issued in 1872 and the 1 skilling green stamp was issued in 1873.

In 1877, the stamp was redesigned to change the denominations to ore and krone.

From here, it gets difficult to tell the various issues apart. The best site to help is this Norwegian post horn stamp identifier.

In 1888, a surcharge of 2 Ore was overprinted on top of the 12 Ore denomination stamp.

In 1972, Norway commemorated the centennial of its first post horn stamps with two “stamp on stamp” designs. Above is my souvenir sheet of the two stamps.

Other designs

In addition to the famous crown and post horn design, Norway has created other stamps with post horns. In 1973, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) chose the post horn as a common theme to appear on stamps for all of its member countries. Most of the countries used a nearly identical design. Below is the Norwegian stamps. See my full collection of stamps from this series here.

I also have the following pair of stamps from 1980 celebrating traditional arts and crafts. It also bears a post horn motif.