Postage stamps and postal history of Estonia

[2] Due to the wars in Denmark, Germany and in the Baltic provinces the postal communications were of vital importance to the Swedish Government and especially to the military authorities.

As the postal route via Denmark periodically was interrupted, the mail from Sweden to Germany was often directed either via Finland and Tallinn or via seaway to Riga.

[3] The public notice "Postordnung" of 26 September 1632 printed in Tartu by Becker can be considered to be the opening date for general mail in Estonia.

After the end of the Great Northern War Estonia was incorporated in the Russian Empire through the Peace of Uusikaupunkti (Nystad) in 1721.

[5] After the Bolshevik takeover of power in Russia during the October Revolution of 1917 and German victories against the Russian army, between the Russian Red Army's retreat and the arrival of advancing German troops, the Committee of Elders of the Maapäev issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence[6] in Pärnu on 23 February and in Tallinn on 24 February 1918.

On 25 February 1918, the German occupation authorities gained control over the Tallinn Post Office and liquidated the former postal service.

[8] The perforated 15 kopecks of the Flowers Issue remains one of the most rare and mysterious postage stamps of Estonia.

The service network included 120 combined post-telegraph-telephone offices, the rest of the system consisted of auxiliary units – 600 postal agencies and nearly 3000 "letter farms".

[11] World War II and the Soviet deportations inflicted great damages to the well-developed postal network of Estonia, but the organization conscientiously continued its everyday work; although short pauses occurred in the areas of immediate hostilities.

From its renewed existence in 1991,[12] Eesti Post, since 2014 also known as Omniva,[13] issued an average of 25 to 30 different stamps, souvenir sheets and booklets a year, with an annual total face value ranging from about ten (until 2009)[14] to twenty euros (2010 and onwards).

The most popular themes, such as lighthouses, manor halls as architectural monuments, folk costumes, Estonian birds, animals, as well as Christmas stamps became established over time and run into long series issued over several years.