"Fylgiblað" (translates to "cover page", but in philately it is called a "parcel card"), or in Danish "adressebrev" or "adressekort", are cards used to manage and control the transit of, delivery of, and have a delivery receipt for a parcel. This method is used in the Scandinavian countries and many European countries; actually putting stamps on a package is the rare exception. The cards are usually a single piece of paper (thin card stock). Frequent senders of such cards could have their company name imprinted on the cards. There are various versions of official and unofficial cards; these differences are very collectible.
Each card bears a numbered label, usually with the origin town name imprinted or written on. A matching, but larger, label is placed on the package. The parcel cards were usually intended to be kept, for a few years, by the delivering post office as a form of a delivery receipt for each package. After the designated period of time had passed, most postal systems clipped the stamps from the cards (along with cuttings from money order cards, postgiro cards, etc.) and sold the on-paper stamps in kilo-weight sealed packages as "official kiloware". Under normal conditions, intact cards were not supposed to be available to collectors, but, as always in philately, some examples escaped the system.
Additional services can also be purchased by the originator. Parcel cards may have a check-box for "Innskrivaður pakki" (registered package) and separately an area titled "Virðispakki" (insured package). At least at times in the past, it was possible to send multiple packages using a single parcel card. Thus there are four possible postage cost elements: the postage for weight and destination, additional postage for additional packages, a possible registration fee, and a possible insurance fee.
In addition to the card bearing the stamps, the card also usually receives, on the reverse, a so-called "office stamp" handstamped postmark, typically four lines such as "Postverk / Føroya / [Date] / [Town Name]". These handstamps ARE A TYPE OF POSTMARKS! They are not (yet) listed in the Faroe postmark catalog listings, however, they deserve to be listed and are in important, if little-acknowledged, aspect of Faroe philately. |
Top  "View EXACT ACTUAL Image"){kind=small}