STAMP STORY

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30348, 25 January 1964, Page 11

STAMP STORY

No Room On Top [Specially written for "The Press" by KENNETH ANTHONY! Of all the many old mall coaches which can be seen pictured on stamps—and a surprising number of countries have chosen to recall the history of mail transport In this way—none of stranger than the “ball post,” the curious mail coach with spherical container shown on this stamp of Denmark. It was issued in April, 1951, to mark the centenary of the first Danish stamp issue. Unlike other mail coachea, which usually carried passengers as well as the mails, this odd-shaped conveyance was intended solely for postal traffic, the letter being stowed away inside the ball. Although it might be thought that the shape was an early attempt at streamlining, it was in fact designed especially so that passengers could not be carried. Anyone who attempted to perch on top of the ball would certainly have had a most precarious ride. And just to make the prospect still less inviting, the ball was fitted with iron spikes. The whole purpose was to prevent the driver from developing a profitable and unofficial sideline by carrying passengers, and so possibly delaying the mails. Care was also taken, of course, that the driver's seat should be narrow eAugh to take only one person. Even so at least one attempt was made to circumvent the regulations. It is on record that in the 1840’s one driver waa dismissed for carrying an unauthorised passenger—a young girl who eat on his knee. Ball-post coaches of this type carried the mails in Denmark from 1815 to 1865, and so covered the period when postage stamps were first introduced. A reconstruction of one .of these interesting vehicles can be seen today in the Danish Post and Telegraph Museum.