Iceland has a population well under 350,000. There are about 50 cities in the U.S. with populations larger than that. Let that sink in. They're hardly going to need to issue a lot of stamps to meet their postal needs. It's a very small country which could easily keep selling the same few stamps for years and meet all its postal needs just fine. Apparently they don't even need to reprint the stamps they've already issued since they have reasonable stocks of stamps on hand already.
Iceland has successfully issued some very beautiful stamps for years and has issued relatively few stamps per year (compared to many other countries), maybe 1500 total in its entire existence. That's well below half, even one quarter of what most countries have issued, though its been a much shorter time for Iceland than for many other countries.
In the last 10 years, Iceland has issued about 300 stamps, an average of around 30 stamps a year. The U.S. has issued over 1,000 stamps in that same time, though that's hardly a fair comparison, I suppose, given the vastly larger size of the U.S. In recent years, Japan has issued hundreds of new stamps each year. I think they've gone insane. That makes Iceland look pretty good, but even 30 stamps a year for Iceland seems like too many. With that small population (and apparently a fairly limited collector base -- and I'm one of them), maybe 15-20 stamps a year would be more than enough for both postal needs and collector. Even 10 a year would be fine. I've subscribed to Iceland stamps for decades, and I hope they continue to issue new stamps -- just maybe fewer.
As for the finances of Iceland Post, its number of employees and so on, comments about that are based on pure guesswork. How would anyone know how many employees the Icelandic postal system needs to process and deliver mail? Everyone's an expert online, I guess. Clearly Iceland must cut postal expenses but they also have a national obligation to process and deliver the mail. What's the proper cost for that? I haven't the slightest idea, and I doubt anyone outside of Iceland does, either. And stamps do more than deliver the mail. They also advertise and honor, important national functions of stamps since stamps were invented.
In the world of stamps, whenever there's a bump in the road like Iceland considering ending its issuing of stamps, we get all the doomsayers out once again telling us that this proves the use of stamps is dying out, stamp collecting is a dying hobby, no one needs stamps anymore, and so on. Some of you guys live under a cloud of gloom. Stamps are not dying out though they continue to evolve. A few decades ago there were all kinds of claims that postal label vending machines would make real stamps obsolete. Didn't happen. Before that, Pitney Bowes postal machines were going to make stamps obsolete. Didn't happen. Stamped envelopes made stamps unnecessary (and you got an envelope!) over a hundred years ago, so wouldn't the public buy them instead of stamps? Well, they didn't.
And, no, use of the mail is not disappearing. Even first-class mail. Today, the U.S. Postal Service continues to deliver almost 150 billion (150,000,000,000) pieces of first-class mail every year. No need for stamps? I don't think so. And U.S. mail volume is only a fraction of mail volume in the entire world. How does the whole world stop issuing stamps? Relax, it's not going to do that.
Stamps aren't going anywhere.
Collecting isn't dying out.
People still like to use stamps, and will continue to use them. What is changing is that the flood of nonessential "labels" which increased dramatically in the 1960s continues to take a toll. Because of the flood, collectors like me who once had stamp subscriptions to more than a dozen different countries were forced to cut back fairly dramatically. The cost of all Japan's stamps each year rose above $300. For China, it wasn't far below that. Other countries overdid stamps, too. France was a particularly prolific producer of unnecessary stamps. We all know the U.S. issues a very large number of stamps. Some of them really aren't necessary.
Purely as "products," stamps won't sell in these enormous quantities. There are going to be a lot left over. They will get "remaindered" into stamp packets or some other product -- or destroyed. Subscribers will eventually cancel their stamp accounts, as I had to do. Fewer stamps issued makes more business sense, no doubt about it.
But stamps aren't issued just as "products" to be sold. They aren't shirts or shoes. Stamps are also issued as national celebrations of history, people, events, culture, or as announcements of upcoming events like the Olympics or international fairs, and they play an important political role, as well, honoring key voting groups, supporting national campaigns against AIDS and breast cancer, anti-drug campaigns, and so on, or honoring countries with which your own country does business or has important diplomatic negotiations.
A few years ago the southwest African nation of Namibia issued a series of Chinese-related stamps along with the inevitable (expensive!) souvenir sheets. Why issue all these stamps about China's modernization, trade with China, the Chinese New Year, and so on? Well, Namibia was negotiating with China for trade and infrastructure deals at the time. Too many Namibia stamps? Not to the government of Namibia. Those stamps were thought to serve an important economic and diplomatic purpose.
Stamps serve a lot of different needs, and they aren't all postal. That also makes them useful, another reason they will continue to be issued. Even with occasional adjustments by tiny nations like Iceland, stamps aren't going away. You can all relax now. |
Posted 07/22/2020 5:25 pm
