Greenland’s 2024 stamp program has a few changes in store for you. I’ve been dabbling with a few ideas over the last year, hoping to make the articles a little more fun and informative. Each article represents a huge amount of information to digest, and I’ve been testing two ideas. The first has been the series categories. I’ve begun to expand this feature to other countries (when I remember) because topical collectors seem to enjoy it. Some of the categories are my own decision and some are directly from the stamp issuing programs.
The second idea is a bit more work but turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable task. Many of the topics also appear on older stamps and series. One of the joys of stamp collecting is making the connections to past releases and seeing how stamp design styles and interpretations of the subject have changed over time. To help people make these connections, I’ve included previous stamps when appropriate. The first stamp for 2024 is a perfect example of this. The School Savings Coupons series is finishing up this year after a 5-year run. I’ve included all stamps in the writeup so you can enjoy the set without flipping between years.
Another example is the May release of the 5th Thule Expedition Centenary. While no other stamps have been released on the expedition itself, there are stamps celebrating its leader and I’ve included one below. It’s a much older stamp, from 1935 and it’s fascinating to compare the modern stamp, by one of the stamp world’s great designers Martin Mörck, to the more traditional design.
Now, if the series is too long running, I’ll bypass this or include a couple of samples, but if the set is limited to a few years they’ll be included. It’s interesting to see all the stamps laid out together; it brings a great deal of continuity to the series. It’s not always easy for my readers to find the previous issues, unless you’re like me and spend far too much time lurking in all sorts of archives.
Don’t forget to come back on a regular basis. I don’t always drop all the artist and topic information in at the start of the year. I often string out details, because it’s more fun for me. I get excited about returning and adding details I’ve been sitting on for months. Enjoy the year, drop a comment and I’ll see you soon with more fun.
Cheers
Catpaw
February
School Savings Coupons
5th in series
series: art | history
2 stamps, 3 FDCs. cancel, 2 sheets of 10
offset
- Hans Egede statue
- Radio stations
This is the final set in the School Savings Coupons series that began in 2020. In total there are 10 stamps. Each set uses the original 1957 artwork by Alex Secher (1913 – 1989). Secher was a Danish artist, cartoonist and graphic artist who originally trained as an engraver and silversmith. He also illustrated a number of books including Reunion with Greenland (1958).
The coupons were created to encourage school children to save money. Children would collect all the stamps in a booklet and, when they had enough, they could use them to either open a new savings account or deposit the stamps and receive the value direct into their existing account. Each stamp/coupon would highlight an aspect of Greenland’s culture, history, and landscapes.
The children’s program was based on an earlier one called established by the Dansk Sparemærkekasse in 1881, with a children’s version opened in 1886. The school program was setup in 1957.
Previous stamps in this series starting with 2020:
Designer: Nina Spore Kreutzmann
Kreutzmann designed all 10 stamps in this series.
Release date: February 29, 2024
Tattoo Art in Greenland
3rd in series
series: art | culture
2 stamps, souvenir sheet, 4 FDCs, cancel, 2 sheets of 10
offset
This series started in 2022 with artwork by Paninnguaq Lind Jensen (set one 2022, and Maya Sialuk Jacobsen (set two 2023)
Designers: Ujammiugaq Møller and Mimi Josefsen
These are first stamps for childhood friends Møller and Josefsen.
Release date: February 29, 2024
May
EUROPA 2024: Underwater Flora and Fauna
series: oceans | EUROPA
2 stamps, 3 FDCs, cancel, booklets of 12, 2 sheets of 10
offset
These stamps explore the connected life of algae and shrimp with ocean life.
- Red algae (Rhodophyta) – large 2 lobe, leafy algae is found around the entire coast of Greenland. Red algae is part of the oceans oldest algae group called eukaryotic, which includes 7,000 species. Rhodophyta – red seaweeds | SeaNet (stanford.edu)
- Deep sea shrimp (Pandalus borealis) – deep sea shrimp live along the muddy bottom of the ocean floor, anywhere from 50 to 600 feet deep. It feeds on algae, bits of dead organic material, small sea creatures like worms and are in turn food for larger creatures like cod, halibut, salmon and seals. In Greenland sea shrimp are called “Red Gold” because of it’s importance. Cool fact about the deep sea shrimp? It’s a first-hand hermaphrodite. They start life out as male and can change to female when needed. Shrimps – Greenland Institute of Natural Resources
Designer: Miki Jacobsen
This is Jacobsen 34th and 35th stamp for Greenland. The 1991 Mother and child with Santa Claus was Miki’s first stamp.
Release date: May 24, 2024
Everyday Heroes
2nd in series
series: people | history
2 stamps, 3 FDCs, cancel, 2 sheets of 10
offset
- Nanna Knudsen
For a number of years, Nanna has fought for mutual understanding as a teacher. She has taught Danes in Greenlandic when Danes had to work in Greenland, and Greenlanders in Danish, so that they better could manage in Denmark. And at the same time explained about the social structure in both places. In recent years, Nanna has lived in Denmark, where she after his retirement has continued to work with interpretation between Danish and Greenlandic in court cases and similar. It is a task that requires great care and care, as well as insight, because much more needs to be interpreted than the language itself, since the two cultures are so different. The insight her work gives her has become one basic inspiration to draw attention to a discrimination that hits hardest on the weakest by her countrymen – a discrimination that she appeals every time she meets it.
n 2022, she received the Legal Policy Association’s honorary award KAFKAT for. She is also co-editor of the magazine SOS racism where she has been effective in finding writers. In her own opinion, Nanna is second to none way a victim. With his intelligence, his modesty and her warm empathy, she can shed light on the things that should be changed in the Danish-Greenlandic relationship
Greenland Collector A Nr. 2 March 2024, p 4.
“When it comes to racism, Greenlanders are still at the bottom of the sad hierarchy,” says Nanna Knudsen.
Firebrand fights discrimination against Greenlanders (sameksistens.com)
- Rebekka Olvsvig
Age is just a number for 79-year-old Rebekka. She is among second volunteer coach in badminton for the underprivileged families. She has also helped create opportunities for ski training for the same group of children. That’s why she got three years ago Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq’s special award for his work as a zealot. She has also previously received the Save the Children Grønland Volunteer Award. It was in 2018 for his tireless effort, which over a number of years has made a big difference for vulnerable children and families. Rebekka Olsvig always has a hug or a smile ready the children. It is valuable and meaningful moments, hun creator in a child’s life.
Greenland Collector A Nr. 2 March 2024, p 4.
Designer: Lisbeth Karline
Karline’s first stamp design was the 2014 Greenland Christmas series. Karline is a graduate of the art school in Nuuk, which has trained a number of outstanding artists. She later moved to Denmark to study at the Copenhagen Film & Theater School.
“I work in many different materials and with diverse ideas – because if I work only with one thing at a time, it takes a lot of time to finish and I start to fiddle with it and it becomes too frilly – by working on many different things at once the process seems more effortless to me and at some point I finish up a project or two, while the other things are still in process”
Interview with Lisbeth Karline | Nukiga (nukigacommunity.com)
Release date: May 24, 2024
Sepac 2024: Main Tourist Attraction
series: seapac | landscapes
1 stamp, FDC, cancel, sheet of 10
offset
Ilulissat is home to the UNESCO World Heritage Ilulissat Icefjord.
The Greenland ice cap is the only remnant in the Northern Hemisphere of the continental ice sheets from the Quaternary Ice Age. The oldest ice is estimated to be 250,000 years old, and provides detailed information on past climatic changes and atmospheric conditions from 250,000 to around 11,550 years ago, when climate became more stable. Studies made over the last 250 years demonstrate that during the last ice age, the climate fluctuated between extremely cold and warmer periods, while today the ice cap is being maintained by an annual accumulation of snow that matches the loss through calving and melting at the margins. This phenomenon has helped to develop our understanding of climate change and icecap glaciology.
Ilulissat Icefjord – UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Ilulissat ice fjord previously appeared on the 2005 Ilulissat Icefjord (World Heritage 2004) stamp.
Photographer/Designer: Mads Pihl
Sidetracked magazine has an excellent article about Pilhl and how he plans his work Rough Real Remote – Adventures in Greenland (sidetracked.com). The article captures the sense of how remote and difficult it can be navigating around Greenland. Capturing the stunning photos is not for the faint of heart.
Release date: May 24, 2024
5th Thule Expedition Centenary
series: history| culture
engraved
The Fifth Thule Expedition from Greenland to Siberia was led by Knud Rasmussen, and explored vast areas of the Arctic, setting a standard by which much later work was to be judged. Between September 7, 1921 and December 2, 1924, various members of the expedition traveled nearly 20,000 miles by dog team, collecting geographic and ethnographic information as well as some 20,000 artifacts. This was compiled into the ten-volume series Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, which is still considered a classic reference for Arctic studies today.
Project (thuleproject.org) (temporarily unavailable. Will check again later)
The expedition traveled along the arctic starting in Greenland, then travelling across the top of Canada to Alaska’s north coast too cross Bering Strait and onto Siberia.
Designer/engraver: Martin Mörck
Mörck has over 600 stamp designs to his credit. His first for Greenland appeared in 1995 and since then has designed about 100 stamps for the country.
Release date: May 24, 2024
King Frederik X – Accession to the Throne
Joint issue with Faroe Islands and Denmark
1 stamp on souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel, souvenir folder with souvenir sheets from Greenland, Faroe Islands and Denmark)
The Queen announced her abdication on New Year’s Eve 2023 making way for her son. Frederik ascended the throne January 14, 2024.
Designer: Ella Clausen
Clausen has now designed about 40 stamps for Denmark, Greenland and Faroe Islands. This is her first set for Greenland.
Photographer: Steen Evald
Evald’s photographs of the Royal family have appeared on the 2004 Royal Wedding – Crown Prince Frederik and Mary release and 2007 The Crown Prince and Family
Release date: May 26, 2024
August
Succession of the Throne
series: royal family
Release date: August 30, 2024
Additional Value Stamp 2024: TUSAANNGA Help Line
1 stamp, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel, souvenir folder
offset
Tusaannga translates to “Listen to me”.
It is an advice line that offers an anonymous, confidential space for those who need to speak openly and safely about mental distress or what hurts or fills them, for example loneliness, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, depression, grief, abuse, violence, bullying, problems in the family or relationships, etc. Tusaannga is the only telephone advice service targeted at children and young people in Greenland. As part of the collaboration with Danish Children’s Conditions, Tusaannga has expanded its offer to also be online from May 2024. Both the telephone and online services are available 24/7. A ‘Let’s help each other’ letterbox is also being planned, where children counsel other children.
From Greenland Collector, Nr. 3, 2024.
Designer: Kristine Spore Kreutzmann
This is NUUK native Spore Kreutzmann’s 3 stamp for Greenland. A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy’s School of Arts and Crafts in ceramic arts, she did an internship studying Japanese ceramics at Choemon in Japan.
Release date: August 30, 2024
Street Art in Greenland IV
2 stamps, 2 FDCs, cancel
offset
Poonojorteq
Before creating his large gable painting in Nuuk, Guido van Helten studied a photograph of a prisoner from Tasiilaq quite thoroughly. The photograph dates from 1906 and was taken by photographer W. Thalbitzer. The face of the prisoner, believed to be called Kâtuat or Poonojorteq, was thus painted on the south-facing gable of block 5 in central Nuuk.
From Greenland Collector, Nr. 3, 2024.
The Last Supper
The stamp shows a central section of his significant work ’The Last Supper’. The work can be seen at the airport in Narsarsuaq in South Greenland. He himself says: “It was painted with inspiration from Leonardo’s ’The Last Supper’. In Leonardo’s work, you look into the building, but in my version, you look out of the building. To nature. There are no weapons in ’The Last Greenlandic Supper’. All the dinner participants have a cup of wine, except Jesus. There is also a woman in my painting – pregnant. The whales form the Christian symbol – the fish.” The entire work can be seen on the first day cover.
From Greenland Collector, Nr. 3, 2024.
Artists:
Guido van Helten ’Poonojorteq’, 2014
Australian van Helten is an internationally recognised street artist, an reknowned for his large scale murals. You can see more of his work at Guido van Helten|
“I’ve always been attracted to extreme places. That’s why I came to Iceland and why I really wanted to paint in Greenland,” said Guido van Helten from Australia. Street art in Colourful Nuuk – [Visit Greenland!]
Gudmundur R. Ludviksson ’The Last Supper’, 2011
Icelander Ludviksson now makes his home in Spain. He studied at the Iceland Academy of Art, Willem De Koonig Art Academy in Rotterdam and Frankfurt Art Academy.
Release date: August 30, 2024
Definitive Series, Coat of arms of Greenland
1 stamp, FDC, cancel
offset
Coat of arms artwork: Kristoffer Gudbrand
Designer: Bertil Skov Jørgensen
Release date: August 30, 2024
Greenlandic Dog Sleds
2 stamps, 2 FDCs, cancel
offset
Greenlanders have been sledding for more than 4,000 years. Historically, dog sledding has been the only means of transport when Greenlanders went hunting in the mountains or out on the ice for fish, seals, Greenland sharks, smaller whales or polar bears. Only a little over half of Greenland’s population lives in areas where dog sledding is available. Dog sledding can be experienced on the entire east coast, while on the west coast it is only possible and permitted north of the Arctic Circle.
The main reason is that dog sledding works best on sea ice. South of the Arctic Circle, the winter is not harsh enough to make it advantageous. Another reason why sled dogs are only found north of the Arctic Circle on the west coast and in the few inhabited areas of the east coast is a desire to keep the Greenlandic sled dog breed pure. It is even forbidden to introduce other dog breeds into the sled dog district.
From Greenland Collector, Nr. 3, 2024.
Designer: Konrad Nuka Godtfredsen
Godtfredsen is also known for his graphic novel series that explore the -history of Greenland.
Release date: August 30, 2024
October
HAFNIA 24 / The Centenary of Greenland’s Unity
This set was released at the HAFNIA 24 exhibition in Copenhagen, October 17-20, 2024.
The image in the first stamp is from an Entrance ticket no. 4582 to Tivoli from the summer of 1924. I’m going to take the entire write up Greenland post provided for this set. It’s a long one, but really important to understand the significance of this set. Translated from the original post.
Following the arrival of the priest Hans Egede and his companions in Greenland in 1721, Danish colonies were established in the following three decades at the most attractive trading locations on the southwest coast of Greenland. The extent amounted to an area of 15 miles on each side of each colony, covering approximately 7% of Greenland’s total area. (Royal poster of 26 March 1751). The rest of Greenland was at that time considered a no-man’s land, for free use by private individuals and companies. Many countries hunted whales and seals in the seas around Greenland, areas that could not be reached by kayak. In
1894, a mission and trading station was established in the Angmassalik area on the east coast of Greenland, where the local priest had the final say in case of disagreements. In 1908, Denmark adopted Greenland laws including some fishing limits, but for political reasons had to refuse Knud Rasmussen’s wish to establish a Danish trading station in the Thule area, North Greenland. Mission station Nordstjernen was established in Thule in 1909, and the following year Knud Rasmussen’s private trading station.
On the Danish side, the desire was to create a unified Greenland, and after the transfer of the Danish West Indies to the USA in 1917, and Danish interests in Spitsbergen to Norway in 1920, an opportunity soon appeared. In the 200th anniversary of Hans Egede’s arrival in Greenland, the anniversary was celebrated in Greenland and Denmark in 1921. King Christian X participated in the celebrations in Greenland, and in Denmark the Ministry of the Interior held a very large Greenland exhibition in St. Nicholas Church in Copenhagen. A new decree on the situation was issued.
Despite earlier acceptance, Norway announced that same year that they could not accept the decree and continued to consider most of Greenland’s east coast, with its associated waters and islands, as no man’s land for the use of Norwegian trappers and fishermen.
The situation of the population in Greenland It was the fishing opportunities that determined the size of the population and the location of the settlements. In doctor Alfred Bertelsen’s report from the ‘Den Danske Literære Grønlands-Ekspedition’ 1902-04 it also appears that Greenlandians who wanted an abortion kept their legs in icy cold water for a while, or put a hot stone on their stomach. The local Greenlanders were not covered by the Danish legal system.
From 1918 to 1919, the population in Greenland fell by 126 people to 13,335. In North Greenland there was a decrease of 163 people and in South Greenland an increase of 37 people. There were approximately 10% more women than men. The number of births was 510, and deaths due to accidents and drowning in kayaks were 56 people. The average life expectancy of Greenlanders was as late as 1952 just 35 years for men and 38 years for women.
On the entire east coast of Greenland, there were only 352 residents left in Angmassalik, while other settlements had been abandoned. The basis of existence for the nomadic hunter culture was challenged, as the number of prey animals for various reasons did not ensure the basis of life.
Danish, but they considered other areas as a no-man’s land. Norway accepted that the local Greenlanders had the first right to settle in the attractive Scoresbysund area. The right to the areas was lost if they were not used for a 5-year period. The Greenlandic island of Jan Mayen ended up being annexed by Norway.
On the same day the agreement came into force, Ejnar Mikkelsen set off on the ship ‘Grønland’ towards Scoresbysund, located approximately 850 km northeast of Angmagssalik. After a land collection, four settlements were built on a private basis in this huge fjord area, which is the size of Denmark. The location was at Ferslews Pynt in Amdrup Harbour, and three further settlements, each with two houses, were located 30 kilometres apart at Cape Tobin, Cape Hope and Cape Stewart. The locals chose in 1925 to exercise their right of first refusal to settle in the area and thus take over the newly built houses; something none of the 82 settlers reportedly regretted. Parties and celebrations in Tivoli, etc.
For the Greenland Festival in Tivoli in 1924, the shown booklet was produced containing 28 pages of advertising for the Scoresby Sund Expedition, and a number of events related to Greenland, in and outside Tivoli. The photo of Ejnar Mikkelsen comes from the booklet.
From Greenland Collector, Nr. 3, 2024.
Designer: Nina Spore Kreutzmann using historical material by Flemming Petersen
Release date: October 17, 2024
Christmas in Greenland 2024
2 stamps, booklets of 2, 3 FDCs, cancel, 2 sheets of 10
offset
“I have depicted a scene where children are doing various activities in the snow. One motif is two children sledding down a hill, with a Christmas tree in the background and a Christmas star in the window. The other motif is a girl in national costume making a snowman, where you could imagine that she has just been to the church in the background. It is drawn in a children’s illustration style to emphasize the sweetness of the season and to focus on the fact that Christmas is part of the children’s world.”
Artist Coco Apunnguaq Lynge
Designer: Coco Apunnguaq Lynge
This is Lynge’s 3rd and 4th stamp for Greenland
Release date: October 17, 2024
Franking Labels – HAFNIA 24
4 stamps
offset
Arctic Fox
Photographer: Carsten Egevang, biologist and researcher at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in Nuuk
Release date: October 17, 2024
November
Fishermen’s and Hunters’ Day (15th Nov.)
2 stamps, 3 FDCs, cancel, 2 sheets of 10
offset
The annual Fishermen’s and Hunters’ Day takes place on November 15th.
The fishermen’s organization KNAPK was founded in 1953, and since then the anniversary has been a true celebration of sustainable fishing, communal worship, coffee, competitions, a folk festival and the awarding of certificates of honor.
From Greenland Collector, Nr. 4, 2024.
Designer: Ivalo Abelsen
Originally from Nuuk, Abelsen has a degree in Bachelor’s degree in Inuit Culture, as well as degrees from School of Architecture in Aarhus and Greenland School of Art and a Master’s degree in Cultural and Social History from the University of Greenland, Ilisimatusarfik. This pair of stamps are her 7th and 8th designs for Greenland, since 2011.
Release date: November 8, 2024
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