Over 350 years ago, King Christian the 4th established the Danish postal service in 1624. It became one of the first postal services in Europe.

The postal service was like it was in other countries - the recipient of the mail was paying for the length the letter had travelled. It was not the way to run a postal service. Because of the success of the postal service in the United Kingdom, the idea of the postage stamp in 1840 was soon grabbed on to.

The first sketches of a danish postage stamp had a portrait of king Frederik 7th. The sketches are from 1850, but because it maybe could be a lese-majesty to put a black postmark on the postage stamp, the sketches were rejected.

Other sketches were made and finaly in 1851 the first postage stamp of Denmark was issued. From that day it was the sender, who payed for the use of the postal service.