twenty-five öre, slate

25 öre · issued 1903 · printed by the korphavn post-works

korphavn is a thin country: one long coast, three fishing towns, a lighthouse for each. the 25-öre slate served inland post — though "inland" in korphavn means roughly twenty kilometres before the road meets the sea again.

the engraver, a woman named L. Aaen, was asked for "a gull and some sea." she gave them both, and a horizon line so faint the post office assumed it was a printing fault and brought the second printing closer to the eye. she objected in a small letter, which was archived in the post-works ledger and never answered.

withdrawn in 1928. the slate variant is sometimes confused with the petrel isle ten-cent, which uses the same horizon line but different birds.

field-note · hold the stamp against a window: the second gull is slightly larger than the first — a printer's flourish, not a flaw.