Woodpeckers top 2019 Aland stamp poll

By Denise McCarty

A set of machine-vended postage labels featuring woodpeckers was voted as Aland’s most beautiful stamp issue of 2019.

Each year, Aland Post issues four new designs for what it calls “franking labels.” The labels issued Feb. 1, 2019, depict four woodpeckers on trees: the great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), lesser spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor), gray-headed woodpecker (Picus canus) and black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius).

Nature and wildlife artist Bo Lundwall created the illustrations for the labels. According to the publication for collectors Aland Post Stamps, Lundwall “choose to illustrate male birds because they are slightly more colourful with their red crowns and forehead patches. For variation, he illustrated the birds in different seasons.”

Aland Post said that the Woodpeckers postage labels overwhelmingly surpassed the other 11 postage stamp issues of 2019 in the competition. The votes were submitted by email.

Finishing second in the competition was the fifth set of stamps in the Sailing Ships series. The 1.40 and 1.60 stamps show Allan Palmer’s illustrations of the schooner Vineta and the four-masted bark Parma, respectively. The stamps were issued Feb. 1.

A booklet of three Harvest Festival stamps took third place. The stamps reproduce Therese Andersson’s photographs of children, cows and apples at harvest festivals. The nondenominated domestic-rate stamps were issued Sept. 20 in a booklet of nine.

Aland Post reports that its 2019 stamps are still available for purchase at its web shop.

Connect with Linn’s Stamp News: 

    Sign up for our newsletter
    Like us on Facebook
    Follow us on Twitter