STAMP STORY

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30454, 30 May 1964, Page 5

STAMP STORY

In Use For 90 Years [Specially written for "The Press" by KENNETH ANTHONY") VOR the longest-lived stamp design the collector turns to Norway, to the simple numeral and post horn device shown on the example illustrated It is still used today, but over the years the design has undergone several minor modifications, particularly in the style of the lettering and in the background. But in essentials it remains the same. It is therefore an easy winner of the title of the longestlived stamp design over the

other principal contenders, the famous “Sower” design of France, which goes back to 1903 (though its career has several times been interrupted) and the equally wellknown camel postman motif which first came out in 1898 and held almost undisputed sway over the stamps of the Sudan for half a century. Undoubtedly the strangest episode in the long life of Norway’s post horn was its appearance during the Second World War with a “V” overprint. This was certainly intended to be the symbol of Victory, but it did not celebrate the liberation. It appeared in 1941, and was a somewhat pathetic attempt of the Quisling government to borrow the Resistance emblem for their own ends. Presumably it was meant to indicate Quisling’s victory in achieving temporary power with the backing of the German army of occupation. Quisling himself was portrayed on Norwegian stamps in 1942. He was executed after the war, but his name lives on, having added a new word to the English language as a synonym for traitor.