Norway issue focuses on blood and organ donation

By Linn’s Staff

Norway highlighted the importance of blood and organ donation with two stamps issued Nov. 7 by Posten, Norway’s postal service.

Both nondenominated stamps pay the domestic rate (currently 27 kroner) for letters weighing up to 50 grams.

The first stamp pictures facial profiles that intersect a multicolored blood drop emphasizing the importance of blood donations. As Posten stated in a Nov. 7 news release: “There is no substitute for blood. Blood is a living material, and even with modern and advanced technology, blood cannot be produced artificially – it must be given.”

In this vein “donors are vital for health services in Norway,” Posten said. “And we need many more new blood donors every year, to replace those who can no longer donate blood due to age, illness, use of medication or similar.”

The second stamp highlights the role that organ donors and their donations play in the preservation of life. The stamp’s image depicts two mutlicolored upper body profiles with the design of a heart in white relief in one profile and a mutlicolored heart in the other profile, presumably with the first being an organ donor and the latter the recipient.

In the Nov. 7 release Norden shared critical statistics regarding organ donation: “In Norway, there are between 400 and 500 people on the waiting list for a new, life-saving organ at any given time. One deceased donor can save up to seven lives. You are three times more likely to need a new life-saving organ than to donate organs yourself.”

The stamps were designed by Sandra Blikas and printed by Joh. Enschede Security Print of the Netherlands by offset in rolls of 100 (50 of each stamp) in a run of 160,000 of each stamp. The stamps measure 36 millimeters by 22mm.

The issue can be found on the Posten website. Posten also has options for presentation packs, collector sets and first-day covers of the stamps.

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