Railway stamp

In philately a railway stamp is a stamp issued to pay the cost of the conveyance of a letter or parcel by rail.

A used railway stamp from Queensland, Australia, for 1 penny valid for the transport of newspapers and parcels

A History of Railway Letter Stamps (1901) by H. L'Estrange Ewen

A wide variety of railway stamps have been issued by different countries and by private and state railways. Railway stamps of an unofficial or semi-official type are considered cinderella stamps.

The first railway stamp was issued in England in 1846 for parcels^[1] and Belgium has issued railway stamps since 1879.^[2]

From 1891 British mainline railway companies issued railway letter stamps for the conveyance of letters by rail, although that service has now ceased apart from on some small tourist lines.^[3]

Railway stamps of Denmark

One of the countries that issued a lot of different railway stamps was Denmark. They were not only issued by Danske Statsbaner (Danish State Railways), but also by many local railway companies like Gribskovbanen (GDS), Hads-Ning Herreders Jernbane (HHJ) and Odsherreds Jernbane (OHJ).^[4]

See also

• Parcel stamp
• Turner Collection of Railway Letter Stamps