Of course, any blog devoted to musical postage stamps can only start with one topic: post horn stamps! Whenever mail carriers arrived they were announced by the sound of this small brass instrument. The postal rider, blew the horn before their arrival or departure.
Due to its importance, the post horn became an international symbol of the postal system in the nineteenth century. The sound of the instrument as well as its visual depiction represented the mail service and postal carriers. It is almost always shown in its coiled form, while actual post horns can also be straight (or curved). Postal logos, uniforms, and, of course, postage stamps, often feature the image of a post horn.
The Instrument
Don’t confuse a post horn with a coach horn, however, which would sound to announce a passenger coach. To be sure, this can be really confusing. The post horn has a long, consistently narrow tube (cylindrical bore) like a trumpet, additionally, it is usually (not always!) coiled like a horn. Meanwhile, the coach horn has a tube that gradually gets wider throughout its length, like a funnel, but it is almost always straight like a trumpet. As a matter of fact, the shape of the tube does make a difference in the sound. The narrow post horn sounds bright like a trumpet, while the coach horn sounds warmer like an orchestral horn. The coach horn is also usually longer, meaning it also is lower in pitch.
Neither instrument has keys nor valves. As a result, these instruments are only capable of a set number of pitches, with gaps in between, known as the harmonic series. For example, think of a bugle tune like reveille or taps to get a sense of the gaps between the pitches. The player changes their lip tension, which alters the air pressure they exert into the mouthpiece, and accordingly, the pitch changes.
Concert Music
In addition, the instrument has also been used by composers. The first was Johann Beer, who significantly wrote a concerto pairing a post horn with a corne de chasse (hunting horn). Mozart wrote a serenade for a post horn in 1779, similarly Mahler used one off stage in his Third Symphony. Some instrument makers incorporated valves and tuning devices so the instrument was better suited to concert settings. For example, there is a post horn with two valves at The Metropolitan Museum of Art that was made as a gift and presented to the postilion Ludwig Kelle around 1880.
The post horn was among many signal instruments that had specific functional usages that were then incorporated into music for concert hall. Europeans had other signal instruments such as the kettledrums and trumpets that announced royalty, the horns used to signal the hunt, and the fife and drum beating for the infantry. Consequently, audiences in concert halls understood these associations. For example, the sound of a snare drum could indicate the sound of an approaching army. The blowing of a post horn, therefore, might cue the arrival of a message from afar.
Without a doubt, the most famous piece of music for the instrument is the Post Horn Gallop written by Hermann Koenig in 1844 for the post horn and orchestra. It has since become a favorite piece of the brass band literature.
The Stamps
The post horn has appeared on postage stamps since the middle of the nineteenth century. It is certainly the most common instrument featured on stamps and can be found on stamps issued by countries from Argentina, to Rhodesia, to Iran. It is most common, however, on stamps from Europe. To be sure, the post horn continues to appear on stamps issued in the twenty first century and there are collectors solely devoted to acquiring post horn stamps. The following are countries and stamps from my own collection. In cases where I have a larger collection I will accordingly endeavor to link to a separate post dedicated to the post horn stamps of that nation.
Argentina
AR 54 (1884-85 12 centavo)
Austria
Scott #’s: 200 (3 heller), 203 (6 heller), 206 (12 heller)
Additionally, you can check out more Austrian post horn stamps here.
Azerbaijian
Scott Number AZ 431
Additionally, you can check out the full set of 1994 and 1995 Azerbaijiani post horn stamps.
Belgium
OBC/COB 1046
Bolivia
Scott Number BO RA5
Additionally, you can check out more post horn stamps from Bolivia here.
Bulgaria
Scott # 1071
Canada
Colombia
Scott Numbers: 749 (20 c); C445 (50 c); and C446 (60 c)
Crete
Scott Number CT 05
Curacao
Scott Number C32
Czechoslovakia
Scott Number: CS 1968
Denmark
Scott Number DK 2
Additionally, check out my page featuring post horn stamps from Denmark.
Ecuador
Scott Number EC RA31
Estonia
Michel Number EE 864
Europa Designs of 1973
In 1973, the member countris of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) each issued stamps featuring post horn designs. Most were based on a common design of an abstract post horn made of three arrows. The examples from Malta below use this design. Additionally, Check out more about this series and the various postal stamps here.
Scott Numbers 469
Finland
Scott Number FI 21 (20 Pennia); FI 42 (25 Pennia)
Additionally, you can check out more post horn stamps from Finland here.
Germany
Scott Number 224
Additionally, check out my full collection of post horn stamps from Germany.
In addition, you can read about my Weimar post horn stamps here.
Great Britain
Surprisingly, Great Britain has very few stamps with post horns. The one above features a post horn next to a crown and underneath an image of Queen Elizabeth II. It celebrates the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the General Letter Office.
Guinea
Scott Numbers GN 234 and 235
Hungary
Scott number P1
Additionally, check out more of my post horn stamps from Hungary.
Iceland
Scott Number IS 16
Indonesia
Scott Number 414
Italy
Additionally, check out more Italian post horn stamps from my collection.
Kuwait
Scott Number 92
Liechtenstein
Scott Number 237
Lithuania
Scott Number LT 636
Moldova
Michel number: MD 613
Mongolia
Scott number: MN 236
Additionally, you can read about a Mongolian set of post horn stamps here.
The Netherlands
Child Care
Scott Number NL B90
Netherlands Antilles
Scott Numbers 206 and 207
Norway
Significantly, 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. Therefore, some collectors specialize in acquiring all of the possible permutations of Norwegian post horn stamps.
Additionally, you can see more of my Norwegian post horn stamps.
On account of the post horn’s important to Norwegian stamps, here are some other excellent sources that delve into this extraordinary musical stamp history:
Firstly, I recommend The Philatelic Database about the Norwegian stamps: World’s Oldest Stamp Design. Secondly, make sure to read this post from The Postal Museum: The Sound of the Post Horn. Finally, another good read is on the A Stamp A Day blog: The Post Horn.
Orange Free States
Scott Number: ZA OR 3
Poland
Additionally, check out more Polish post horn stamps from my collection.
Rhodesia & Nyasaland
Scott Numbers: GB-RH J1 (one penny); GB-RH J2 (two pence);
GB-RH J3 (four pence); GB-RH J4 (6 pence)
Romania
Scott Number RO 14
Additionally, check out more Romanian post horn stamps here.
Russia
Scott Number RU 18
Additionally, check out more Russian post horn stamps here.
Rwanda
Scott Numbers 37 (50 c); 38 (1.50 f); 39 (3 f); and 40 (20 f)
Shanghai
Michel CN-SH 118I
Slovakia
Scott # J32
Soviet Union
Spain
Scott Number: ES 2104
Suriname
Scott Number C 27
Sweden
Additionally, you can check out my Swedish post horn stamps.
Switzerland
Scott Number CH 8
Additionally, you can check out my collection of Swiss post horn stamps.
United Arab Emirates
Scott Number AE 107
Upper Volta
Scott Number: BF 334
Yugoslavia
1977. Scott Numbers YU 1153 (1.00) and YU 1155 (1,50)
Thanks for your wonderful and informative posts about musical instruments on stamps. I’ve just discovered your page, and thoroughly enjoyed reading. Here’s a question I’ve often wondered about regarding posthorns — why was the posthorn chosen as an instrument to signal the arrival of a postal messenger? It strikes me that blowing a posthorn while riding a horse might not be the easiest thing … a drum (for example) or a bell might have been easier. Do you have any insights about this?
I do not know the answer to this. However, I can offer a few guesses. I think it has to do with the “bang for your buck” in terms of size of instrument verses how far it could be heard. A drum or bell that would be loud enough to be heard over any distance would have to be quite large (and a bell would be very heavy). The only European drums that I know of that were regularly played on horseback were kettledrums and a horse with drums that size would not have had much room for mailbags.
However, various forms of horns or trumpets were used on horseback. Fanfare trumpets announced royalty, hunting horns were used to signal the hunt, and coach horns were used to announce the arrival of a passenger coach. So brass instruments of any size seem to have been easy enough to play on horseback and the small size of a post horn mean it wasn’t too big to take up space needed for the mail bags. These are only some observations and there may in fact be other issues of which I am unaware.
Thanks for your guesses … they are educated, and worth pondering. I haven’t been able to find any answer to this question anywhere else … and you’ve added the size element which I hadn’t thought of before. Appreciate the conversation
Jay is absolutely correct. Horns were used for the post and passenger coaches because they could be heard over great distances and were compact enough to carry on horseback. Being a kettledrum player myself (when I was a teenager), I cannot see myself sitting on horseback playing the kettledrums. And a bell large enough to be heard over any distance, would weigh several tons. (Poor horse)!
I also should have added this … that I have found a posthorn in the coat of arms of Franz von Taxis, who set up among the first established postal routes in Europe, but I don’t know if the horn appeared before or after he received the charter
That is very good to know. I have a couple of stamps from Thurn and Taxis 1852 that have post horns. That makes great sense that it was in his coat of arms as a well run postal system seems to have been an element of great pride in the principality.
Actually, Jay, snaredrums were played from horseback too. But they are not very loud.
snare (or at the time side drums) were played sometimes on horseback, particularly in the dragoons. They can be loud, but you are right that the sound does not carry nearly as far as horns. That is why side drums were good for infantry (foot soldiers), but not as successful for the mounted troops.