ICELAND

ICELAND / ÍSLAND.

Electricity and waterworks.
Gullfoss Waterfall.
Last stamp in a set of 8, issued on 04.04.1956.
Face value: 5 Icelandic krónor.
Printing: Recess.
Print: 500,000 copies.

Catalogs
- AFA No. 311.
- Michel No. 310.
- Scott No. 296.
- StampWorld No. 311.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 342.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 268.

Gullfoss (“Golden Falls”) is a waterfall located in the canyon of the Hvítá river in southwest Iceland. The Hvítá river flows southward, and about a kilometre above the falls it turns sharply to the right and flows down into a wide curved three-step “staircase” and then abruptly plunges in two stages (11 m. or 36 ft, and 21 m or 69 ft) into a crevice 32 m (105 ft) deep. The crevice, about 20 m (66 ft) wide and 2.5 km (1.6 mi) in length, extends perpendicular to the flow of the river. The average amount of water running down the waterfall is 141 m³ (5,000 cu ft) per second in the summer and 80 m³ (2,800 cu ft) per second in the winter.

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Thanks to R. Gómez-Val for his contribution.