Swedish Post Horn Stamps

This article features my Swedish post horn stamps collection. It is another in my series about post horn stamps of various countries. For those that don’t know, the post horn was a small brass instrument that was blown to announce the arrival or departure of a mail rider or coach. It was commonly used in many European countries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Due to this, the post horn became an international symbol of the postage system. As a result, many countries use it in their logo, on the mail boxes, or on their uniforms. Countries from Argentina to India have also featured the post horn, but it is most common in Europe. Check out this article to learn more.

Nineteenth Century

My oldest example of a Swiss philatelic item with post horns is pre-printed postage on a postcard for the August Hoffmann piano manufacturers in Stockholm. The card has a postmark of April 18, 1880 on an oval embossed postage that has three crowns and on each side of the oval, a small post horn. Due to the cancellation stamp, the post horn on the right is more easily visible below.

Sweden had an unusual practice of imprinting a post horn on the back of stamps for a while in the late 19th century. This small blue post horn appeared on Swedish stamps from1886 to 1891. I do not know the reason for this printing, perhaps it was a way of preventing forgeries? It was a short lived practice. Here are a couple of examples from 1886 in my collection.

Swedish 1920s Definitive Stamps

Sweden has issued quite a number of so-called post horn stamps, especially in the 1920s when the instrument was found on a set of definitive stamps. The series began in 1920 and throughout the decade was expanded until it included nineteen stamps. The stamps had the same design with a different denomination, each monochromatically printed in a different color.

Above you can see the five stamps I have from this series. The stamp features two elements: the crown and a post horn. The symbols paired together are essentially a pictogram. The crown represents the monarch, and the post horn symbolizes the mail service. It is a depiction in images the represents the royal postal service. As such, a crown and post horn are paired together on many country’s stamps. A helpful resource about these Swedish designs can be found here. I am breaking up the overall series to show them by the chronological year in which they were first issued.

Modern Design

I also have a rather nice stamp from 1965 that is a modern abstract design.

Swedish Post Rider Stamps

In 1924, Sweden made a pair of stamps celebrating the UPU (Universal Postal Union). These commemorative stamps are pretty wonderful. A post rider grips a post horn, while looking confusingly? anxiously? at an airplane flying overhead. The stamp celebrates the changing ways in which mail was transported. Of course, looking back now from almost a century later, the early plane itself is quaint, but wonderful.

I also have a post rider on a Swedish postage stamp from 1967. You can check out my collection of postillion and post rider stamps on this post.