If you missed the pre-sale of Posta Faroe Islands ambitious “Stamps of Maybe” collection, you’re not alone – the early access sale of these cutting-edge NFT (non-fungible token) stamps sold out in just two hours.
But for those still looking to get their hands on the first crypto stamps of the Nordics, now’s your chance: the Stamps of Maybe sale has officially begun.
The four NFT stamps issued today by Posta Faroe Islands celebrate the four seasons on the islands. Their digital twins are capable of capturing the realtime weather of the Faroe Islands upon activation, making them truly one-of-a-kind.
In the Stamps of Maybe series, artist Heiðrik á Heygum shares his unique view of the seasons in the Faroe Islands with four beautiful picture bouquets representing the year's seasons. Each bouquet contains flowers, birds, and animals that are tied to each season. Posta Faroe Islands has provided the following descriptions of each stamp to explain the deep meaning behind their designs.
Spring
Unsurprisingly, Heiðrik has chosen the lamb, the oystercatcher and the marsh marigold to represent the spring bouquet. Nothing is more reminiscent of spring than the familiar sound of the oystercatcher and the little lambs playing in the infield. Nature wakes up, the grass grows, and flowers, animals and people delight in the long-awaited victory of light over darkness. Both the infields as well as the outfields abound with life. The marigold, the national flower of the Faroe Islands, begins to bloom and spreads its yellow colour across small streams and other moist areas. If you go for a walk on a beautiful spring day, you will hear the birds singing happily, celebrating this wonderful time of year.
Summer
In summer, grass and plants are in full bloom, and the Faroe Islands are never as green and flourishing as in summer. Red clover, dandelions and other flowers adorn our summer bouquet, along with two of the Faroe Islands' most famous birds, the puffin and the gannet. You can also see the tail fin of a pilot whale protruding from the bouquet. At this time of year, the Faroe Islands show their most beautiful side — days with a calm breeze, brilliant sunshine, and the sea shining like a mirror.
An old Faroese song has this refrain, "It is so beautiful, so beautiful to live in the Faroe Islands", and we can only salute the poet, Fríðrik Petersen, for this excellent and totally correct observation. It is beautiful to live in the Faroe Islands.
Autumn
The grass is fading in the field, and the migratory birds have moved south to spend the winter in warmer climes. Now the time has come to harvest potatoes and other crops. This is also the season when the sheep are herded down from the mountains to their final destination in the abattoir. The autumn bouquet also contains the ram and the mallard, along with mushrooms and faded leaves. The days are getting shorter and the evenings longer. But autumn is also an exciting time. Schools and other activities are starting again, and many young people will be travelling abroad to study. We sincerely hope most of them, like the migratory birds, will return home after concluding their studies.
Winter
It is no secret that the Faroese winter can be harsh and windy. Low-pressure areas gather over the islands, affecting the weather. Thunderstorms and hurricanes may not be commonplace, but they are not entirely rare. Seeing the northern lights dancing over the mountain tops on a beautiful, clear, snow-white winter evening is a unique experience. These two natural phenomena, snow and northern lights, adorn the winter bouquet beside the hare and the goose. Geese have been kept on the Faroe Islands since the settlement period, and the Faroese goose is believed to be a direct descendant of the geese brought by the Vikings.
The hare, however, only arrived recently in the Faroe Islands. The first hares were brought to the Faroe Islands in 1855, from Kragerø in Norway. The hunting season for hares is from November 2nd to December 31st.
Thus the cycle of the year continues. The seasons change, and each season has its distinctive charm. Nature wakes up, blooms, fades and goes to sleep – and wakes up again, repeating the endless cycle.
Stamp enthusiasts, NFT enthusiasts, and collectors alike can visit www.stampsofmaybe.fo to purchase these exclusive NFT stamps. Only 7,500 copies of each of the four unique designs will be issued, ensuring their exclusivity and collectible value.
Posta Faroe Islands has always been celebrated by philatelists worldwide for its innovative stamp designs, ranging from fish skin textures to breathtaking landscapes and cultural artifacts. The introduction of NFT stamps builds upon this legacy and represents a bold leap forward in the collecting experience. As the first Nordic postal service to issue NFT stamps, Posta Faroe Islands joins just a handful of other postal services across the world, including Österreichische Post and PostNL. Their first blockchain backed issue celebrates the cycle of seasons on the islands with four stamps featuring the archetypal plants and animals of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Each physical stamp from the Stamps of Maybe collection has its own digital twin that is stored on the blockchain and can still be used for franking, a unique feature thus far among crypto stamps. This collection also marks the first integration of real-time weather data (from Veðurstova Føroya, the Faroese Weather Station) with NFT stamps using blockchain technology. Each digital stamp captures a unique moment in time, with the real time weather of the Faroe Islands at the time of activation affecting the appearance of the digital stamp. The owner is able to preview the level of the NFT at any given time and in any given weather conditions, and then decide whether to activate their digital stamp and lock in the appearance, or wait for another day.
“Stamps of Maybe represents a groundbreaking advancement in the world of stamp history by introducing oracle technology for the first time,” Michael Dorner, CEO of VariusSystems, the blockchain experts behind Posta Faroe Islands’ NFT stamps, told Forbes. “This innovative approach empowers users to interact and co-create their stamps allowing them to shape the rarity of their collection. Moreover, these NFT stamps act as a time capsule, preserving an exact moment in time.”
This never-before-seen technology makes the seasons of the Faroe Islands come alive – but it's worth noting the hint of irony in creating NFTs tied to changing weather conditions. NFT stamps are backed by non-fungible tokens stored on a secure blockchain network, which makes for truly one-of-a-kind and impossible to replicate collectibles. However, that often comes at the price of enormous greenhouse gas emissions. Experts have warned that the proliferation of NFTs could have catastrophic consequences for the environment, with the New York Times reporting that the creation of the average NFT comes with a footprint of over 200 kilograms of carbon, the equivalent of driving 500 miles in a typical American gas-powered car. Though it’s doubtful that one limited series of NFT stamps will make much of a dent in our already bruised and battered global ecosystem, it’s worth considering in the context of a larger conversation about the evolution of stamp collecting. If NFTs are part of the future of philately, how can we encourage the technology that powers them to become sustainable?
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