Collection area

Private Mail in Estonia

Private postal companies do not exist in Estonia; at least not if you mean stamp-issuing private posts that operate on a local or regional level, such as various "citypost" companies in Germany, with their own stamps, letterboxes, etc.

However, there are mail delivery services and courier services, since 2009 also for letter mail (see below).

The Estonian Post, "AS EESTI POST", itself has been a private company since 2014, however (AS = Aktsiaselts = a public limited company, which in this case is 100% owned by the Estonian state). As part of the internationally operating logistics company OMNIVA, it operates as a nationwide "private post", comparable roughly to Deutsche Post AG, cf. more detailed explanations under "Collecting Area Independent Republic of Estonia, Euro Currency Chapter (since 2011)".

Anyone can obtain "stamps on private order" from the AS EESTI POST via OMNIVA. The Schwaneberg catalogue lists the stamps issued under this designation since 2012 with a personalised stamp image as Michel numbers 1 to 12 separately at the end of the country's catalogue. It is estimated that there are now several tens of thousands of stamps on private order with different motifs. They can be ordered online at www.omniva.ee.

In addition, the so-called "Minu Mark" (plural: Marka), "My Mark", issues have been catalogued under the Michel main numbers since 2006. In essence, these are also privately ordered stamps, which were issued by the state-owned EESTI POST until 2013 and by the privatised postal company AS EESTI POST under the umbrella of OMNIVA Holding since 2014. Some of the Minu Marka were and are issued with a fixed "postal" decorative field, others without it, like the "private-order stamps" mentioned above.

Between 2006 and 2019, the following Minu Marka were catalogued with Michel main numbers: 557, 577, 617, with overprint 714 to 716, 724, 811, 961.

The Minu Marka Michel Nos. 714 to 716 are special in that they were created by overprinting new value levels on the original Minu Marka Nos. 557, 577 and 617. Moreover, they were only available with (and not without) personalised decorative fields and only by private order. At the same time, with a circulation of 26,154 (MiNo. 714), 12,240 (MiNo. 715) and 13,374 (MiNo. 716) pieces, they have the lowest circulation of all Estonian stamps available since the regaining of independence.

---

Courier and delivery services

As early as 2001, the delivery service "D2D Kättetoimetaja Kullerteenus" ("D2D Hand Delivery Courier Service") started in Estonia, delivering parcels and packages as well as letters.

Letter from and to Tartu, sent by D2D 04 -08- 2001

Other delivery services were founded, for example, around the subject of newspapers and magazines, and after opening of the postal system in 2009, the scope of work also extended to the classic letter mail, but not by mailbox, but collected from the customer.

An example of this: Expresspost (www.expresspost.ee/)

Letter with unknown place of dispatch and delivery, sent by Expresspost 04 -08- 2021. Striking is the postmark of a postal distribution center, usual for the Estonian state post, here in Keila / Saku; i.e. that presumably the letter mail is partly delivered by the state post (AS Eesti Post).