Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Yesterday I have started making an inventory of my collection so far, and counted 560 different ones. That may sound impressive, but since I got the AFA catalogue dedicated to Nordic Christmas Seals I know better. If my counting is correct, there are more than 2,500 different seals, miniature sheets, booklets and local seals not included. That means I am only at 20% and it explains why every time I receive Jul stamps in trades, I can use more than half of them.
The problem, if you can call it that, is that since 1951 the seals are issued in sheets of 50, and more often than not that means 50 different. For most years, having more than 10 out of those 50 is an accomplishment
So I keep looking and adding. Right now I have not decided if I want to include the Christmas seals from Norway, Sweden, Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. Although I have 3 from Norway and 2 from Iceland, I think I will concentrate on Denmark for now. On the other hand, they are not as prolific as Denmark so it could be easier to complete.
If you have Danish Christmas seals and do not know what to do with them, let me know. They are more than welcome!
Jan-Simon
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I am selling all of my collections apart from a very few and am sorting my Danish Cinderellas as I read your post. I have older ones and some locals too as well as sheets and part sheets of more modern. If there is any interest, let me know.
Londonbus1
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Hi Michael, PM sent
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For the past few months, I’ve been deeply involved with Danish Christmas Seals.
Two digital album texts are already completed (made with Clive's wonderful AlbumEasy) and can be found for download on my website at www.albentexte.de/en. There I’ve also compiled some additional information that goes beyond what is covered in both Green’s Catalog and the AFA Catalog on this collecting field.
In the meantime, the Colnect catalog provides a fairly complete overview of the Christmas Seals issued by the Julemærkefonden since 1904.
I would be very glad to exchange ideas and experiences with other collectors of Danish Christmas Seals!
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Hi Alexander,
Thank you for reviving this thread. Looking back, i have made huge progress the past.4 years. I now have modt of the regular Danish Jul stamps upto 1985, and bits and pieces from the more recent years. As you point out on your website, the variation has become enormous so I do not have any hopes of ever finishing the collection. The local Jul stamps are sketchy at the best with Aalborg being the only exception. I have quite a few of them and especially the older ones are really beautiful. .
Also managed to acquire a lot from Færøer, Greenland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland. Even some from Danish West Indies. The amount of stamps to collect is huge and that's an understatement.
Unfortunately i do not have many duplicates, apart from the more common ones from the 1960s amd 70s. Also a number of full sheets from Sweden and Færøer.
Looking forward to hear from you. What is your focus, what do you like best?
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Hello Jan,
I’m pleased that you are also continuing to take an interest in the Danish Christmas seals.
I actually came across this collecting field more or less by chance, but it has fascinated me ever since. At the outset I hadn’t expected the considerable increase in complexity over the past 15 years. I have become particularly taken with the small panes and booklet panes. What I “research” I currently record in the Colnect catalogue in my capacity as an editor. Both the AFA and Green’s catalogues leave the individual seals from large and small panes completely unconsidered. But how is one supposed to swap without an overview of what exists and what is still missing?
At present I am working to gather enough information to provide adequate catalogue documentation of the annual folders from 1904 to 1955.
I am also very interested in the special small panes which the Julemærkefond does not sell but gives to its supporters. They have been issued since 2009 and in some cases show considerable differences compared with the regular small panes. Specifically, I am missing the years 2009 to 2013, 2017, 2022 and 2024. Perhaps one or another collector may at least have illustrations of these.
Another current focus is on perforation varieties of the 1904 issue, and I also intend to add covers/post cards bearing postally used Christmas seals to my collection.
In parallel, I am also expanding my album pages for this collecting field. The whole thing will certainly become far too comprehensive, but collectors can simply omit the pages covering types of issues they do not collect (reprints, souvenir folders, booklets, the supporter versions of the small panes, and so on).
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I, too collect these, but nowhere near the expanse of variations as you both do.
I also collect Christmas - and other seals - from around the world.
Maybe one or both of you could post some images of some of the lesser known varieties.
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I will see what I can do. Here is a picture I already had on my phone. Early Icelandic christmas seals (from the Thorvaldsensfélagið)
I will also make some pictures of local Danish jul stamps.
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While Seal News, the journal of Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Society, is dominated by US seals and Cinderellas, it does cover seals and Cinderellas from other countries. As its editor, i'd welcome expanding its coverage to those countries you like; that is a standing invitation.
David
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As promised, a few pictures from my collection, showing some of the more unusual christmas seals. These are all, more or less, rare "Jul" stamps.
First two from Danish West Indies.
The Danish West Indies were sold in 1917 to the USA and are now the US Virgin Islands. Not everyone agreed with this sale, which made the last christmas seals from DWI more like political propaganda poster stamps.
Next one of only two christmas seals issued by the First republic of Estonia. This one is from 1939, just before the German-Russian pact ended Baltic independence.
The third one in this section is a complete collection. Nørrebro is part of Copenhagen and in 1915, the Nørrebro Borgerlige Forening (literally citizen's society, which sounds pretty normal, but it was in fact some kind of Rotary for the higher classes) decided to issue christmas seals so that the poor children could also enjoy Christmas. 2 stamps were issued and obviously it was not a big success, because these remained the only 2 issued by this group.
Finally a group of stamps that is also from the period of the first world war: Belgiske Børn (Belgian children). These stamps were fundraisers for Belgian children that were orphans or refugees due to the First World War being fought out on Belgian soil
.
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Also a few stamps from local Danish charity organisations. The amount of stamps is overwhelming. The AFA julemaerker catalogue needs almost 500 pages to list them all... My collection of these is small, tiny actually.
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very nice, Jan-Simon.
The Estonian are so heart-rending; that shield will be no match for the two behemoths heading their way. And the Belgians are interesting; was ore their currency or are they being printed outside the country?
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No, they are Danish, hence the øre currency (in Belgium they used the Franc). However, it was a truly international effort, coordinated from Denmark. Stamps were printed in Denmark, overprinted with various country names (Norway, Sweden, USA, Argentina) and sent to these countries to be sold locally, with the proceedings going to the aid for Belgium. In total more than 100 stamps were issued and overprinted in various ways. I only have these four...
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I'm happy also to respond to musicman's request, and I'll start with the Christmas Seals that were issued between 1907 and 1916 in the former Danish colony of the Danish West Indies (which was sold to the United States in 1917 and has since been known as the Virgin Islands):
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And here are the first Christmas seals issued by and for the Danish minority in northern Germany (South Schleswig) since 1949. They are published by the Sydslesvigsk Forening (SSF), the cultural umbrella organization of the Danish minority in South Schleswig. Proceeds from the sale of the seals go toward the SSF’s social work.
In 1953, due to delays in producing the new year’s design, earlier issues were privately overprinted. The letters “SE” in these overprints stand for Sydslesvigsk Erhvervsfond (South Schleswig Business Fund).
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I have a few Sydslesvig jul stamps, but not the older ones. I think 1959 is the oldest in my collection.
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Those are stunning. I can see why you'd like to collect these.
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Some of those Christmas seals would fit nicely into my Stars on Stamps collection. Thank you all for posting! I'll have to go searching.
Bob
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Thank you all for posting these!
I have a handful of my own I have yet to ID and seeing these will help since I have no catalog to reference.
Can't wait to get moved in and unpacked to resume stampin....chomping at the bit over here!
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@musikman:
At least as far as the national Christmas seals of the Danish Christmas Seal Foundation are concerned, Colnect now offers you a fairly extensive cataloging.
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Here are all the Danish Christmas Seals issued by the Julemærkefonden between 1904 and 1952. In the early years, there was just a single seal each year. In 1952, four different seals appeared. From then on, up to 50 different Christmas Seals were released each year, all printed together in one large pane.
The 1904 Christmas Seal is shown twice, since it exists in two different forms: perforated and line-rouletted (saw-tooth). In addition, imperforate varieties and pairs with gutters between them exist for all the issues shown.
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Starting today, I’d like to introduce you to things that are not found in the standard catalog sources on the Danish Christmas Seals (issued by the Julemærkefonden). These include in particular Green’s Catalog (revised in 2022 by Dan Cousineau) as well as the AFA Nordisk Julemærkekatalog (2012 with a 2017 supplement). Even the Julemærkefonden’s own website doesn’t provide this information.
I want to begin with the numbers that, up until 1997, were often printed or handwritten on the large sheets of Christmas Seals—usually in the lower right corner—inside a separate field. 
At first I thought they might indicate the Danish postal district to which the sheets were to be sent or in which they were to be sold. That turned out to be very wrong.
The answer is much more practical: the individual points of sale (usually post offices) received bundles of 50 sheets each, and these were numbered consecutively from 1 to 50. If, at the end of one day, sheet number 48 was on top, and the next day sheet number 35, it was immediately clear that 13 sheets (each containing 50 seals) had been sold. Even in pre-digital times, people knew how to simplify the little details.
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I agree. Learning all the time :-)
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My post today takes a first (!) step toward the question of how many different seals the Julemærkefonden actually issues in any given year.
If you look at the AFA catalog or the Julemærkefonden website, you’ll find a number listed there. This number is determined on the basis of the individual seals contained in the perforated (!) large pane of that particular year.
But: since 2009, these large panes have been issued not only perforated but also die-cut. And the perforation and die-cut patterns are not always identical. Especially with the die-cut panes, portions that in the perforated version each produce a single seal are sometimes combined into one seal. Here’s an example from 2021—by way of illustration, since the die-cut lines are hard to see, also shown with images of the individual seals:
The perforated pane contains 46 individual seals, while the die-cut pane contains 44. At the very least, the 2 die-cut designs that do not appear in the perforated pane (since in the perforated version the corresponding areas amount to 4 separate seals) must be added to the total number of seals in the annual issue.
Collectors who focus on single seals—ideally also postally used and canceled—should be aware of this: with the die-cut seals, they may encounter issues that, according to the perforated pane, “actually” don’t exist at all…
When I recently asked the chairman of the Danish Christmas Seal Collectors’ Society about these differences between perforated and die-cut large panes, he replied that he didn’t know anyone who would care about that. I was, to put it mildly, astonished!
And once you also take the miniature sheets into account, things become even more complex—and more intriguing. But more on that later…
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Since you are in contact with those who might know: will this year's issues be the last? After all, 31 December 2025 will be the final day of Danish mail delivery... and without normal mail, it is hard to imagine any need for christmas seals.
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Getting in touch with those who (supposedly) ought to know something isn’t really that easy—at least not for a German fan of Danish Christmas seals. Even the press officer of the Julemærkefonden doesn’t respond to my specific inquiries…
That said, mail delivery and distribution will not actually come to an end on December 31, 2024. As far as I know, a competitive tendering process is planned to find alternative service providers. However, the responsible ministry in Copenhagen has so far provided no information on this, a fact that the Danish Philatelic Federation has also criticized strongly.
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Really?
When I look back at the news from a few months ago, the overall message was that mail delivery was about to end by the end of this year. What was somehow lost is that PostNord is throwing the towel and that a competitor has already said (at the same day!) it wants to take over (DAO, a combination of the publishers of Denmark's main newspapers). It seems a complex topic is, not for the first time, oversimplified to an extent that only a catchy quote remains like "Denmark's postal service to stop delivering letters".
I cannot find a confirmation that this proposed takeover by DAO is a done deal or that, as you write, a tender will be issued. If so, it will take a long time before the government can award a contract to a new mail delivery company.
Interesting bit of information is the fact that in 2024, a new law opened up the postal market to private competition, which took away the exemption from the country's 25% rate of VAT. So the introduction of competition made the product 25% more expensive, leading to the accelerated decline of the mail volume and the situation the Danes are in now...
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Thank you very much for the critical inquiry. It prompted me to research the current situation once again:
As of January 1, 2026, Denmark will continue to have nationwide mail delivery – but no longer by PostNord. PostNord will stop carrying letters on December 31, 2025, and will only handle parcels after that date.
The company dao has officially been granted the nationwide license to deliver letters. Under this license, dao is obliged to deliver to all addresses in Denmark and to offer at least one standard letter product at uniform prices throughout the country.
Since January 1, 2024, a revised Postal Act has been in force. It establishes a market-based licensing framework, distinguishing between local and nationwide services. Any company providing nationwide services must obtain authorization from the Danish Transport Authority (Trafikstyrelsen). At the same time, the Ministry of Transport remains responsible for ensuring that certain services – such as international mail, registered mail, mail for the blind, and deliveries to remote islands – continue to be provided. Where necessary, these may be assigned through tenders or direct contracts.
The Transport Authority lists dao among the licensed nationwide providers and monitors their service quality. In July 2025, the Ministry of Transport announced that nationwide operators were meeting quality targets, with dao performing particularly well.
Unresolved issue as of now: The Ministry is still working on the specific operational model for international mail and registered mail from 2026 onward. No final decision has yet been published.
In short: From January 1, 2026, dao will be responsible for Denmark’s nationwide letter delivery, while PostNord will focus solely on parcels. The Ministry will ensure continuity of international and registered mail services, though the exact setup is still pending.
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Rednaxela and Jansimon,
Just to let you know how much I am enjoying this thread.
I look for the latest installment of "Danish Christmas seals" everytime I sign in.
Thanks to you both.
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Today I continue with the miniature sheets and booklet panes issued by the Julemærkefonden since 1982.
These panes, initially containing 8 seals and later 10, each with margins on all four sides, often had a dual function: they were used both to fill the annual stamp booklets and to be mounted in the souvenir folders.
The souvenir folders – folded cardboard, later illustrated – were originally produced from 1904 to 1955 (then called “annual folders”) and again from 1979 to 1982, when they were filled with parts (blocks) of the large panes. Beginning in 1982, however, the new miniature sheets were mounted instead.
The miniature sheets simultaneously served as booklet panes. For the first booklet in 1982 (not for the souvenir folder), there were in fact two variants: in one, the top row starts at the left with a male nisse (Christmas gnome), in the other with a female nisse.
Like the large panes, the miniature sheets/booklet panes were and still are offered as so-called Scala printings – sets containing all printing stages up to the final product, in both perforated and imperforate form. Whether miniature sheet were also sold separately before 2011 is unfortunately unknown to me; perhaps someone in this forum can shed light on this.
From 1987 to 2008, miniature sheets and booklet panes can usually be distinguished: due to a new adhesive binding, the booklet panes show a narrow blank margin area, whereas the margins of the miniature sheets are consistently printed in color.
If the margins of the pane/sheet remained white, however, a distinction is not possible. No systematic size differences between miniature sheets and booklet panes can be established.
Since 2009, miniature sheets and booklet panes have once again been identical; in addition, miniature sheets have since been issued in die-cut form with self-adhesive seals.
By 2011 at the latest, perforated miniature sheets were also sold separately, not only in booklets, annual folders, or Scala printings.
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Over the past several weeks I haven’t posted anything further here on the Danish Christmas Seals.
The reason is that I was given the very kind and rather unexpected assignment by John Denune of the Christmas Seals & Charity Stamp Society to revise and expand the Denmark section of the Green’s catalog.
This work has now, I hope, come to a good conclusion.
The revised Denmark catalog is now available through the Society.
Here are a few sample pages:
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That looks pretty impressive.
What is the currency used here? US$? Pricing appears to be in line with AFA's Julemærker catalogue, or are there (somewhere) big differences?
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AFA was one guideline among others such as pricing lists of dealers, auction results and so on. A lot of issues now cataloged in Green's aren't cataloged in AFA (a lot ot tpcs, pcps, essays and all the issues of the last years, differentations between booklet panes and miniature sheets and so on).
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Is there anyone among you who collects the seals issued by the Denmark’s Christmas Seal Collectors’ Association (DJF)?
I would be most grateful for any information regarding the DJF overprinted issues from 1980 onwards (DJF anniversaries, annual DJF meetings, and DJF Christmas Seals). To date, there is no truly reliable or comprehensive overview of these issues. I am currently working to compile such a reference, both for my own collection and in preparation for an update of the relevant section of the Green’s Catalog.
Many thanks in advance for any information or feedback.
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nice to meet you, Alexander. Great to add another to small group of very various seal collectors here.
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For some time I have been trying to expand my Denmark collection with one of the annual Christmas seals that have been issued in Denmark since 1904.
Yesterday I have started making an inventory of my collection so far, and counted 560 different ones. That may sound impressive, but since I got the AFA catalogue dedicated to Nordic Christmas Seals I know better. If my counting is correct, there are more than 2,500 different seals, miniature sheets, booklets and local seals not included. That means I am only at 20% and it explains why every time I receive Jul stamps in trades, I can use more than half of them.
The problem, if you can call it that, is that since 1951 the seals are issued in sheets of 50, and more often than not that means 50 different. For most years, having more than 10 out of those 50 is an accomplishment
So I keep looking and adding. Right now I have not decided if I want to include the Christmas seals from Norway, Sweden, Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. Although I have 3 from Norway and 2 from Iceland, I think I will concentrate on Denmark for now. On the other hand, they are not as prolific as Denmark so it could be easier to complete.
If you have Danish Christmas seals and do not know what to do with them, let me know. They are more than welcome!
Jan-Simon
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
I am selling all of my collections apart from a very few and am sorting my Danish Cinderellas as I read your post. I have older ones and some locals too as well as sheets and part sheets of more modern. If there is any interest, let me know.
Londonbus1
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Hi Michael, PM sent
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
For the past few months, I’ve been deeply involved with Danish Christmas Seals.
Two digital album texts are already completed (made with Clive's wonderful AlbumEasy) and can be found for download on my website at www.albentexte.de/en. There I’ve also compiled some additional information that goes beyond what is covered in both Green’s Catalog and the AFA Catalog on this collecting field.
In the meantime, the Colnect catalog provides a fairly complete overview of the Christmas Seals issued by the Julemærkefonden since 1904.
I would be very glad to exchange ideas and experiences with other collectors of Danish Christmas Seals!
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Hi Alexander,
Thank you for reviving this thread. Looking back, i have made huge progress the past.4 years. I now have modt of the regular Danish Jul stamps upto 1985, and bits and pieces from the more recent years. As you point out on your website, the variation has become enormous so I do not have any hopes of ever finishing the collection. The local Jul stamps are sketchy at the best with Aalborg being the only exception. I have quite a few of them and especially the older ones are really beautiful. .
Also managed to acquire a lot from Færøer, Greenland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland. Even some from Danish West Indies. The amount of stamps to collect is huge and that's an understatement.
Unfortunately i do not have many duplicates, apart from the more common ones from the 1960s amd 70s. Also a number of full sheets from Sweden and Færøer.
Looking forward to hear from you. What is your focus, what do you like best?
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Hello Jan,
I’m pleased that you are also continuing to take an interest in the Danish Christmas seals.
I actually came across this collecting field more or less by chance, but it has fascinated me ever since. At the outset I hadn’t expected the considerable increase in complexity over the past 15 years. I have become particularly taken with the small panes and booklet panes. What I “research” I currently record in the Colnect catalogue in my capacity as an editor. Both the AFA and Green’s catalogues leave the individual seals from large and small panes completely unconsidered. But how is one supposed to swap without an overview of what exists and what is still missing?
At present I am working to gather enough information to provide adequate catalogue documentation of the annual folders from 1904 to 1955.
I am also very interested in the special small panes which the Julemærkefond does not sell but gives to its supporters. They have been issued since 2009 and in some cases show considerable differences compared with the regular small panes. Specifically, I am missing the years 2009 to 2013, 2017, 2022 and 2024. Perhaps one or another collector may at least have illustrations of these.
Another current focus is on perforation varieties of the 1904 issue, and I also intend to add covers/post cards bearing postally used Christmas seals to my collection.
In parallel, I am also expanding my album pages for this collecting field. The whole thing will certainly become far too comprehensive, but collectors can simply omit the pages covering types of issues they do not collect (reprints, souvenir folders, booklets, the supporter versions of the small panes, and so on).
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I, too collect these, but nowhere near the expanse of variations as you both do.
I also collect Christmas - and other seals - from around the world.
Maybe one or both of you could post some images of some of the lesser known varieties.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
I will see what I can do. Here is a picture I already had on my phone. Early Icelandic christmas seals (from the Thorvaldsensfélagið)
I will also make some pictures of local Danish jul stamps.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
While Seal News, the journal of Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Society, is dominated by US seals and Cinderellas, it does cover seals and Cinderellas from other countries. As its editor, i'd welcome expanding its coverage to those countries you like; that is a standing invitation.
David
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As promised, a few pictures from my collection, showing some of the more unusual christmas seals. These are all, more or less, rare "Jul" stamps.
First two from Danish West Indies.
The Danish West Indies were sold in 1917 to the USA and are now the US Virgin Islands. Not everyone agreed with this sale, which made the last christmas seals from DWI more like political propaganda poster stamps.
Next one of only two christmas seals issued by the First republic of Estonia. This one is from 1939, just before the German-Russian pact ended Baltic independence.
The third one in this section is a complete collection. Nørrebro is part of Copenhagen and in 1915, the Nørrebro Borgerlige Forening (literally citizen's society, which sounds pretty normal, but it was in fact some kind of Rotary for the higher classes) decided to issue christmas seals so that the poor children could also enjoy Christmas. 2 stamps were issued and obviously it was not a big success, because these remained the only 2 issued by this group.
Finally a group of stamps that is also from the period of the first world war: Belgiske Børn (Belgian children). These stamps were fundraisers for Belgian children that were orphans or refugees due to the First World War being fought out on Belgian soil.
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Also a few stamps from local Danish charity organisations. The amount of stamps is overwhelming. The AFA julemaerker catalogue needs almost 500 pages to list them all... My collection of these is small, tiny actually.
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very nice, Jan-Simon.
The Estonian are so heart-rending; that shield will be no match for the two behemoths heading their way. And the Belgians are interesting; was ore their currency or are they being printed outside the country?
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
No, they are Danish, hence the øre currency (in Belgium they used the Franc). However, it was a truly international effort, coordinated from Denmark. Stamps were printed in Denmark, overprinted with various country names (Norway, Sweden, USA, Argentina) and sent to these countries to be sold locally, with the proceedings going to the aid for Belgium. In total more than 100 stamps were issued and overprinted in various ways. I only have these four...
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I'm happy also to respond to musicman's request, and I'll start with the Christmas Seals that were issued between 1907 and 1916 in the former Danish colony of the Danish West Indies (which was sold to the United States in 1917 and has since been known as the Virgin Islands):
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And here are the first Christmas seals issued by and for the Danish minority in northern Germany (South Schleswig) since 1949. They are published by the Sydslesvigsk Forening (SSF), the cultural umbrella organization of the Danish minority in South Schleswig. Proceeds from the sale of the seals go toward the SSF’s social work.
In 1953, due to delays in producing the new year’s design, earlier issues were privately overprinted. The letters “SE” in these overprints stand for Sydslesvigsk Erhvervsfond (South Schleswig Business Fund).
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I have a few Sydslesvig jul stamps, but not the older ones. I think 1959 is the oldest in my collection.
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Those are stunning. I can see why you'd like to collect these.
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Some of those Christmas seals would fit nicely into my Stars on Stamps collection. Thank you all for posting! I'll have to go searching.
Bob
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Thank you all for posting these!
I have a handful of my own I have yet to ID and seeing these will help since I have no catalog to reference.
Can't wait to get moved in and unpacked to resume stampin....chomping at the bit over here!
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@musikman:
At least as far as the national Christmas seals of the Danish Christmas Seal Foundation are concerned, Colnect now offers you a fairly extensive cataloging.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Here are all the Danish Christmas Seals issued by the Julemærkefonden between 1904 and 1952. In the early years, there was just a single seal each year. In 1952, four different seals appeared. From then on, up to 50 different Christmas Seals were released each year, all printed together in one large pane.
The 1904 Christmas Seal is shown twice, since it exists in two different forms: perforated and line-rouletted (saw-tooth). In addition, imperforate varieties and pairs with gutters between them exist for all the issues shown.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Starting today, I’d like to introduce you to things that are not found in the standard catalog sources on the Danish Christmas Seals (issued by the Julemærkefonden). These include in particular Green’s Catalog (revised in 2022 by Dan Cousineau) as well as the AFA Nordisk Julemærkekatalog (2012 with a 2017 supplement). Even the Julemærkefonden’s own website doesn’t provide this information.
I want to begin with the numbers that, up until 1997, were often printed or handwritten on the large sheets of Christmas Seals—usually in the lower right corner—inside a separate field.
At first I thought they might indicate the Danish postal district to which the sheets were to be sent or in which they were to be sold. That turned out to be very wrong.
The answer is much more practical: the individual points of sale (usually post offices) received bundles of 50 sheets each, and these were numbered consecutively from 1 to 50. If, at the end of one day, sheet number 48 was on top, and the next day sheet number 35, it was immediately clear that 13 sheets (each containing 50 seals) had been sold. Even in pre-digital times, people knew how to simplify the little details.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
I agree. Learning all the time :-)
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
My post today takes a first (!) step toward the question of how many different seals the Julemærkefonden actually issues in any given year.
If you look at the AFA catalog or the Julemærkefonden website, you’ll find a number listed there. This number is determined on the basis of the individual seals contained in the perforated (!) large pane of that particular year.
But: since 2009, these large panes have been issued not only perforated but also die-cut. And the perforation and die-cut patterns are not always identical. Especially with the die-cut panes, portions that in the perforated version each produce a single seal are sometimes combined into one seal. Here’s an example from 2021—by way of illustration, since the die-cut lines are hard to see, also shown with images of the individual seals:
The perforated pane contains 46 individual seals, while the die-cut pane contains 44. At the very least, the 2 die-cut designs that do not appear in the perforated pane (since in the perforated version the corresponding areas amount to 4 separate seals) must be added to the total number of seals in the annual issue.
Collectors who focus on single seals—ideally also postally used and canceled—should be aware of this: with the die-cut seals, they may encounter issues that, according to the perforated pane, “actually” don’t exist at all…
When I recently asked the chairman of the Danish Christmas Seal Collectors’ Society about these differences between perforated and die-cut large panes, he replied that he didn’t know anyone who would care about that. I was, to put it mildly, astonished!
And once you also take the miniature sheets into account, things become even more complex—and more intriguing. But more on that later…
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Since you are in contact with those who might know: will this year's issues be the last? After all, 31 December 2025 will be the final day of Danish mail delivery... and without normal mail, it is hard to imagine any need for christmas seals.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Getting in touch with those who (supposedly) ought to know something isn’t really that easy—at least not for a German fan of Danish Christmas seals. Even the press officer of the Julemærkefonden doesn’t respond to my specific inquiries…
That said, mail delivery and distribution will not actually come to an end on December 31, 2024. As far as I know, a competitive tendering process is planned to find alternative service providers. However, the responsible ministry in Copenhagen has so far provided no information on this, a fact that the Danish Philatelic Federation has also criticized strongly.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Really?
When I look back at the news from a few months ago, the overall message was that mail delivery was about to end by the end of this year. What was somehow lost is that PostNord is throwing the towel and that a competitor has already said (at the same day!) it wants to take over (DAO, a combination of the publishers of Denmark's main newspapers). It seems a complex topic is, not for the first time, oversimplified to an extent that only a catchy quote remains like "Denmark's postal service to stop delivering letters".
I cannot find a confirmation that this proposed takeover by DAO is a done deal or that, as you write, a tender will be issued. If so, it will take a long time before the government can award a contract to a new mail delivery company.
Interesting bit of information is the fact that in 2024, a new law opened up the postal market to private competition, which took away the exemption from the country's 25% rate of VAT. So the introduction of competition made the product 25% more expensive, leading to the accelerated decline of the mail volume and the situation the Danes are in now...
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Thank you very much for the critical inquiry. It prompted me to research the current situation once again:
As of January 1, 2026, Denmark will continue to have nationwide mail delivery – but no longer by PostNord. PostNord will stop carrying letters on December 31, 2025, and will only handle parcels after that date.
The company dao has officially been granted the nationwide license to deliver letters. Under this license, dao is obliged to deliver to all addresses in Denmark and to offer at least one standard letter product at uniform prices throughout the country.
Since January 1, 2024, a revised Postal Act has been in force. It establishes a market-based licensing framework, distinguishing between local and nationwide services. Any company providing nationwide services must obtain authorization from the Danish Transport Authority (Trafikstyrelsen). At the same time, the Ministry of Transport remains responsible for ensuring that certain services – such as international mail, registered mail, mail for the blind, and deliveries to remote islands – continue to be provided. Where necessary, these may be assigned through tenders or direct contracts.
The Transport Authority lists dao among the licensed nationwide providers and monitors their service quality. In July 2025, the Ministry of Transport announced that nationwide operators were meeting quality targets, with dao performing particularly well.
Unresolved issue as of now: The Ministry is still working on the specific operational model for international mail and registered mail from 2026 onward. No final decision has yet been published.
In short: From January 1, 2026, dao will be responsible for Denmark’s nationwide letter delivery, while PostNord will focus solely on parcels. The Ministry will ensure continuity of international and registered mail services, though the exact setup is still pending.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Rednaxela and Jansimon,
Just to let you know how much I am enjoying this thread.
I look for the latest installment of "Danish Christmas seals" everytime I sign in.
Thanks to you both.
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Today I continue with the miniature sheets and booklet panes issued by the Julemærkefonden since 1982.
These panes, initially containing 8 seals and later 10, each with margins on all four sides, often had a dual function: they were used both to fill the annual stamp booklets and to be mounted in the souvenir folders.
The souvenir folders – folded cardboard, later illustrated – were originally produced from 1904 to 1955 (then called “annual folders”) and again from 1979 to 1982, when they were filled with parts (blocks) of the large panes. Beginning in 1982, however, the new miniature sheets were mounted instead.
The miniature sheets simultaneously served as booklet panes. For the first booklet in 1982 (not for the souvenir folder), there were in fact two variants: in one, the top row starts at the left with a male nisse (Christmas gnome), in the other with a female nisse.
Like the large panes, the miniature sheets/booklet panes were and still are offered as so-called Scala printings – sets containing all printing stages up to the final product, in both perforated and imperforate form. Whether miniature sheet were also sold separately before 2011 is unfortunately unknown to me; perhaps someone in this forum can shed light on this.
From 1987 to 2008, miniature sheets and booklet panes can usually be distinguished: due to a new adhesive binding, the booklet panes show a narrow blank margin area, whereas the margins of the miniature sheets are consistently printed in color.
If the margins of the pane/sheet remained white, however, a distinction is not possible. No systematic size differences between miniature sheets and booklet panes can be established.
Since 2009, miniature sheets and booklet panes have once again been identical; in addition, miniature sheets have since been issued in die-cut form with self-adhesive seals.
By 2011 at the latest, perforated miniature sheets were also sold separately, not only in booklets, annual folders, or Scala printings.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Over the past several weeks I haven’t posted anything further here on the Danish Christmas Seals.
The reason is that I was given the very kind and rather unexpected assignment by John Denune of the Christmas Seals & Charity Stamp Society to revise and expand the Denmark section of the Green’s catalog.
This work has now, I hope, come to a good conclusion.
The revised Denmark catalog is now available through the Society.
Here are a few sample pages:
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
That looks pretty impressive.
What is the currency used here? US$? Pricing appears to be in line with AFA's Julemærker catalogue, or are there (somewhere) big differences?
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
AFA was one guideline among others such as pricing lists of dealers, auction results and so on. A lot of issues now cataloged in Green's aren't cataloged in AFA (a lot ot tpcs, pcps, essays and all the issues of the last years, differentations between booklet panes and miniature sheets and so on).
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
Is there anyone among you who collects the seals issued by the Denmark’s Christmas Seal Collectors’ Association (DJF)?
I would be most grateful for any information regarding the DJF overprinted issues from 1980 onwards (DJF anniversaries, annual DJF meetings, and DJF Christmas Seals). To date, there is no truly reliable or comprehensive overview of these issues. I am currently working to compile such a reference, both for my own collection and in preparation for an update of the relevant section of the Green’s Catalog.
Many thanks in advance for any information or feedback.
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re: Danish Christmas seals / Julemaerker
nice to meet you, Alexander. Great to add another to small group of very various seal collectors here.
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