Iceland Covers Include Interesting Points of Origin

This weekend, I spent several hours working on a stack of Iceland covers that I purchased a few months ago on eBay. I've always loved the stamps of Iceland and they tie in nicely with my interest in polar philately.

I find myself drawn to stamps from countries with small populations and Iceland really fits this bill. It's largest city Reykjavik, the capital, has a population just over 120,000 and the country as a whole has a population of around 329,000. Just think about it, we could relocate the entire country of Iceland to a couple of Houston neighborhoods.

With the small population in mind, a noticed several of my covers are registered mail from one Icelandic community to another. Most of these were from towns in the capital region, suburbs of Reykjavik, to other towns in the capital region. The capital area includes Reykjavik and the towns of Álftanes, Garðabær, Hafnarfjörður, Kópavogur, Mosfellsbær, and Seltjarnarnes. I also noted at least eight Reykjavik post office cancels with designations such as Reykjavik 1, Reykjavik 2, etc.

One of the more interesting covers from the capital region was a cover from Garðabær to Reykjavik with a triangular yellow label inscribed "Póstkrafa Remboursement." I'm not confident of the translation, but I believe it is "Silver Reimbursement."

Other covers were from more remote and less populous regions. I found a great cancel from Hofsós, population 161. It's a window envelope, however, and the destination is unknown. Another great cover is Scott #619 from Tálknafjörður, population 286, located on a fjord in the Northwestern Region of the country, to Reykjavik.

My favorite cover of the group, however, is a registered cover from Brú to Reykjavik via Hólmavík, population 337 (town cancel on reverse of cover). The Wikipedia only has a stub record on Brú. It reads: "Brú is a farmstead and road junction in northwestern Iceland in Vestur-Húnavatnssýsla county. It is located in the Northwest Political constituency. It has a filling station and a guesthouse. It is located at the southern tip of Hrútafjörður where the river Hrútafjarðará has its estuary with the Arctic Ocean." I feel like I own a treasure!

 

To help in my research, I put together a list of Cities, towns and settlements in Iceland. I also included a multiplier for calculating the value of covers. The idea is to value the cover based on the catalog value of the stamps times the multiplier. For example, a cover with $1 catalog value worth of stamps from Reykjavik (2x multiplier) is worth $2. If the same cover was registered (2x multiplier), then it would be worth $4.

These cover values do not apply to First Day Covers (FDC). Michel gives prices for FDCs in its North Europe catalog beginning with the issues of 1934. Also, these multipliers do not apply to Scott Numbers 1-44B or O1-O12. These early covers are priced in the Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue.

This is just a rough estimate of the price, and I haven't done a lot of research on this. I'm just using it as a guide for rarity and for recording the covers in my collection inventory. Over time, I might revise my estimates, or I might not, but here's the list for your review. And, to give credit where credit is due. I pulled the city data from Wikipedia. 

Iceland Cities and Towns by Population
City	Population	Region	Cover value multiplier
Akranes	6,754	Western Region	x3
Akureyri	17,915	Northeastern Region	x3
Álftanes	2,498	Capital Region	x2
Árbæjarhverfi í Ölfusi	54		x10
Bakkafjörður	86		x10
Bifröst	208		x5
Bíldudalur	196		x5
Blönduós	793		x4
Bolungarvík	906		x4
Borg í Grímsnesi	96		x10
Borgarfjörður eystri	88		x10
Borgarnes	1,865	Western Region	x3
Brautarholt á Skeiðum	57		x10
Breiðdalsvík	128		x5
Brú	na	Northwestern Region	x10
Brúnahlíð í Eyjafirði	78		x10
Búðardalur	274		x5
Byggðakjarni í Mosfellsdal	225		x5
Byggðakjarni í Þykkvabæ	53		x10
Dalvík	1,370	Northeastern Region	x3
Djúpivogur	331		x5
Drangsnes	83		x10
Egilsstaðir	2,319	Eastern Region	x3
Eskifjörður	1,026	Eastern Region	x3
Eyrarbakki	495		x5
Fáskrúðsfjörður	671		x4
Fellabær	404		x5
Flateyri	206		x5
Flúðir	419		x5
Garðabær	11,885	Capital Region	x2
Garður	1,425	Southern Peninsula	x3
Grenivík	274		x5
Grímsey	76		x10
Grindavík	2,991	Southern Peninsula	x3
Grundarfjörður	855		x4
Grundarhverfi á Kjalarnesi	565		x4
Hafnarfjörður	27,870	Capital Region	x2
Hafnir	109		x5
Hauganes	110		x5
Hella	830		x4
Hellissandur	378		x5
Hnífsdalur	194		x5
Höfn	1,665	Eastern Region	x3
Hofsós (Hafsós)	161		x5
Hólar í Hjaltadal	67		x10
Hólmavík	337		x5
Hrafnagil	276		x5
Hrísey	172		x5
Húsavík	2,184	Northeastern Region	x3
Hvammstangi	543		x4
Hvanneyri	260		x5
Hveragerði	2,382	Southern Region	x3
Hvolsvöllur	934		x4
Innnes	60		x10
Ísafjörður	3,629	Westfjords	x3
Keflavík	8,169	Southern Peninsula	x3
Kirkjubæjarklaustur	140		x5
Kleppjárnsreykir	51		x10
Kópasker	114		x5
Kópavogur	33,181	Capital Region	x2
Kristnes	55		x10
Laugar	128		x5
Laugarás	103		x5
Laugarbakki	47		x10
Laugarvatn	163		x5
Litli-Árskógssandur	108		x5
Lónsbakki	99		x10
Melahverfi í Hvalfirði	120		x5
Mosfellsbær	9,300	Capital Region	x2
Nesjahverfi í Hornafirði	76		x10
Neskaupstaður	1,530	Eastern Region	x3
Njarðvík	4,400	Southern Peninsula	x3
Ólafsfjörður	782		x4
Ólafsvík	1,024	Western Region	x3
Patreksfjörður	682		x4
Rauðalækur	57		x10
Raufarhöfn	183		x5
Reyðarfjörður	1,118	Eastern Region	x3
Reykhólar	132		x5
Reykholt í Biskupstungum	236		x5
Reykjahlíð	156		x5
Reykjavík	121,822	Capital Region	x2
Rif	163		x5
Sandgerði	1,580	Southern Peninsula	x3
Sauðárkrókur	2,635	Northwestern Region	x3
Selfoss	6,512	Southern Region	x3
Seltjarnarnes	4,411	Capital Region	x2
Seyðisfjörður	639		x4
Siglufjörður	1,206	Northeastern Region	x3
Skagaströnd	480		x5
Sólheimar í Grímsnesi	111		x5
Stöðvarfjörður	198		x5
Stokkseyri	441		x5
Stykkishólmur	1,107	Western Region	x3
Súðavík	173		x5
Suðureyri	278		x5
Svalbarðseyri	283		x5
Tálknafjörður	286	Northwestern Region	x5
Þingeyri	252		x5
Þorlákshöfn	1,522	Southern Region	x3
Þórshöfn	358		x5
Tjarnabyggð	104		x5
Varmahlíð	121		x5
Vestmannaeyjar	4,272	Southern Region	x3
Vík í Mýrdal	293		x5
Vogar	1,102	Southern Peninsula	x3
Vopnafjörður	528		x4
Other Multipliers
Registered	x2
Póstkrafa Remboursement	x3