Architect Julius Therchilsen's original competi-tion-winning stamp design of 1902. 

The Origin

In 1902 the Minister of Public Works, Viggo Hørup, arranged a public competition about a draft for a new type of stamp which should be "simple in its composition, easily read, and uncomplicated to print". The occasion for renewal of the national stamps is unknown, but two types were used at the time: The so-called "two-coloured" from 1870, which was complicated to print, and the "arms type" from 1881 that may have seemed somewhat anti-quated at the beginning of a new century.

The Postal Service received totally 350 suggestions for the new type of stamps and one of these, exe-cuted by architect Julius Therchilsen (1873-1954), was chosen. However, the Post was not completely content with the original drawing and the originator was asked to modify it by adding some hearts.
 

This modified design was approved as the prototype of the wavy line stamp in 1904. 

The Symbolism

The elaboration of the stamp has evidently been made in an exemplary way. The name of the country and the indication of value are extremely distinct. Therchilsen borrowed the lions, the hearts, and the mandatory royal crown from the Danish Coat of Arms. There is absolutely no doubt that the stamp is an official security of a certain, if ever so small, value.

The new element in the picture surface is the three broken wavy lines symbolizing the three main waterways of the kingdom - The Sound, the Great Belt, and the Little Belt. This is how simple it can be done.
 

In the postal service's printing house it was at-tempted in 1932 to continue the letterpress printed version of the wavy line type in steel engraving, but the technique could not reproduce the hearts satis-factorily and the result was rejected. 

The Use

The first stamp with the value of 4 ore covering the national printed paper rate was issued on 22nd July 1905, and the wavy line type soon became popular. Before the end of the year it was issued with the values of 1 ore for supplementation pur-poses, 2 ore for local printed matters, 3 ore for local postcards, and 15 ore for e.g. registered post charge.

Since then the type has mainly been used for sup-plementation and for the lowest postage rates to and including the lowest printed paper rate which is today the 425 ore it costs to send a second-class letter weighing up to 50 g. In addition to this, there are wavy line stamps with the values of 25, 50, 100, 125, 150, and 200 ore.
 

In 1932, J. Therchilsen made this design for the wavy line type in steel engraving - without hearts. 

Modernization

In 1932, the Postal Service decided to take over the printing of stamps which had so far been handled by a company in Copenhagen called "H.H. Thieles Bogtrykkeri" that produced stamps in letterpress and copperplate printing. From Germany a machine was bought for manufacturing of stamps in rotary printing of the printing method steel engraving, which is an industrialized version of the copper-plate.

It was attempted to continue the wavy line type un-changed in the new printing method, but the result was so bad that it became necessary to have Julius Therchilsen modify his drawing by removing the hearts and putting in an extra ring around the indi-cation of value.
 

In the jubilee year of the wavy line type the postal service is relaunching the stamp in steel engraving in its original version with hearts.  

In 1981, problems arose again: On 2nd January that year the lowest printed paper rate increased to 100 ore and the wavy line type was only designed to carry two figures. However, the graphic artist Claus Achton Friis managed to re-draw the value figures in the smaller size that was required to en-able the stamp to continue to exist.

Post Danmark A/S uses the opportunity of the 100th anniversary to re-issue the wavy line type in a new engraving which takes the stamp back to its original elaboration from 1905. The stamp is still made in steel engraving, but the technique has now become so refined that the small details in the hearts can be reproduced satisfactorily.

The Oldest in the World?

It is the Norwegian post horn stamp from 1872 that can flaunt the title of "the world's oldest stamp in constant use". The stamp is still being used fre-quently and like the wavy line type it has undergone some small, but insignificant changes through the times.