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Catalog Data

Dimensions:
25 x 15.5 x 9 in (63.5 x 39.37 x 22.86 cm)
Type:
Mail Processing Equipment
Place:
DENMARK (kingdom)
Date:
1949-1964
Description:
This Danish mailbox is a "Bybrevkasse nr. 2 uden bundtømning" (an urban letter box type 2 without bottom-clearance) of the Model 1949, which was in use until 1964. The logo on the top of the box was used from 1939 until 1974.
The Danish postal system dates back to December 23, 1624, when King Christian IV established a national postal service. The first post office was established in the stock exchange at Copenhagen, which was operated by the mayor of Copenhagen and several guilds. The service originally included nine routes, which gradually expanded to a network of postmasters living in the towns along the main post roads. Although the job of postmaster did not pay particularly well, employees of the postal service had the benefit of exemption from taxes. The state assumed control of the postal service in 1711.
Customers usually collected their letters at the post office, which was often located in the private residences of the postmasters. It was also possible to hear the latest news from the post riders at the post office and, for an additional payment, to read newspapers.
The post roads played an important part in the development of modern Scandinavia. Although the Danish road system was considered adequate for the traffic in the seventeenth century, the roads were usually nothing more than rough wheel tracks with reinforced dikes and wooden bridges across streams and wetlands. Significant improvements to the Danish road system occurred in the late eighteenth century.
Speed was considered essential throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Along the important post roads from Copenhagen to Hamburg, the post rider had just fifty-one hours to go each way. In comparison, the carrier post that conveyed packages and passengers took a week each way. Across northern Scandinavia, mail progressed much more slowly. For example, during the winter it could take up to seven months for the mail to pass from Copenhagen to Vardø in the northernmost part of Norway. As of 2005, Post Danmark claimed that 95 percent of all domestic priority letters reach the final addressee the day after posting.
References:
Erik Jensen, Deputy Chief, Senior Curator, Post & Tele Museum Denmark
http://www.ptt-museum.dk/default.asp (accessed March 13, 2005)
http://www.denmark.dk/portal/page?_pageid=374,477955&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL (accessed March 13, 2005)
Topic:
International Postal Operations  Search this
Object number:
0.299384.6
See more items in:
National Postal Museum Collection
On View:
Currently on exhibit at the National Postal Museum
Data Source:
National Postal Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/hm8b43884bb-724a-4baf-bf74-4f529aa5d6eb
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:npm_0.299384.6