The postgiro (postal payment) system, used in many European countries, allowed for payments to be made and received through the post office. It is commonly used in Faroe, Denmark, and the other Scandinavian countries. While a payer could initiate the payment process, most of the items philatelists see are initiated by the person to be paid, with a card that requests the payment. The payments could be for any purpose, from membership dues to magazine subscriptions to insurance premiums, but often the items reflect invoices (requests for payment) sent by a business to an individual or other business. Payments were managed by a form / card usually with three parts. The three parts were originally a single intact piece of paper (thin card stock) separated by rouletting. 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.
Part A is the "Kvittan" (receipt); it bears the stamps, the name and address of the recipient (the person being billed, the payer), the sender / originator (person to be paid) information, the amount information, and the reason for the payment request. This "A" receipt part is normally kept by the recipient (person being billed) or the post office. Part B is the "Postinnheinting Inngjaldingarkort" (mail collection deposit card). When the recipient / payer has paid the amount due, the post office sends Part B back to the originator / payee which they can then use the card to see that the money has been paid into their account. Part C is virtually never seen by philatelists; it is the originator original copy for their files. The originator fills out all three parts and keeps Part C. The originator mails the still-connected Parts A-B to the person who owes money, the payer. The payer takes Parts A-B to their local post office and pays the money to the post office. Parts A and B are then separated. Part A is marked as paid and is kept by the payer (or retained by the post office for their records???). The post office puts the funds into the originators account and records the payment by marking Part B as paid, sending Part B back to the originator. Part A, bearing the stamps, is very seldom seen (thus most may be kept by the post office) under normal conditions, EXCEPT when, for whatever reason (which is to be marked on the reverse of Part A), the payer does not pay the amount due -- in that case, the still-connected Parts A and B are returned to the originator. Such a return can be observed by the notations on the back of Part A and/or crayon/pen lines on Parts A and/or B through the payer name and address. Most examples of these cards that come to the market are the result of being returned to the originator because of non-payment.
In addition to the Part A bearing the stamps, Part A also may (only occasionally) receive 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. |