Poststemplet "Fra Hjarnø"

af Toke Nørby

The "Fra Hjarnø" Postmark

Hjarnø is a small island located (Latitude North 55 deg 49 min and Longitude East 10 deg 5 min) in the inlet of Horsens, Jutland. Less than 200 people live on Hjarnø, which belongs to the local postal area of Horsens. In the period when Denmark had two types of letter rates, local and inland, the postman in Hjarnø (there was only one) procured a straight-line postmark, "Fra Hjarnø" which was to be used on outgoing local rate letters. This postmark was needed because mail from Hjarnø was taken by ship from the island together with mail from Endelave (an island outside the local rate area of Horsens) and it was necessary to distinguish between the letters from Hjarnø and Endelave to ensure that the Hjarnø letters were not penalized after checking the postage.

An example of another "Fra-"-hand stamp
(The authors private and non-postal hand stamp).
The original "Fra Hjarnø"-postmark has disappeared.

The postmark is mentioned in a local circular from Horsens Head Post Office dated 23 September 1952. In the article I asked for additional information on other impressions of the postmark. Only four impressions are recorded and only on two are we able to identify the dates: 25 June 1952 and 5 December 1959. There was no reason to use the postmark on the latest know example as the local rate arrangement ended on 31 March 1957 but the postmark was probably not returned to the Horsens Post Office.

[Citeret fra Toke Nørbys hjemmeside
Læs mere om emnet på dansk af Toke Nørby: "Udvalgte Filatelistiske og Posthistoriske Artikler" (Nørbyhus 1993. ISBN 87-984623-1-8) eller PHT 1988. Vol. 2. pp. 33-39.]