Movatterモバイル変換

Iceland - Government Flags

Island

• The state flag and ensign
• Current official flags
• President's flag
• Customs flag
• Pilot flag
• Coast guard
• Post ensign
• Telegraph ensign
• Post and Telegraph ensign

See also:

• Iceland
• Historic flags of Iceland
• Coat of arms of Iceland
• Royal flags of Iceland

The state flag was introduced in 1919, and has not changed since.
Jan Oskar Engene, 24 June 1996

The state flag is derived from the national flag witha swallow-tail fly cut as (7+1+2+1+7):(7+1+2+1+9+12).Smith(1982) designated the use of this flag as -SW/-SW. Now, I know that currentlyIceland has a treaty with USA regarding its defence, and that theUS Navy performs as an IDF (and uses the US ensign), but possibly there are some kind ofmilitary units on land?In any case, this flag was certainly used as war flag and war ensign before the treaty wassigned.
Željko Heimer, 1 February 2002

Iceland has never had any military forces of its own, before or after thetreaty with the USA. It does have an armed coast guard, but I believe this is considered a civilian force similar to the police. I therefore believe itis more correct to designate this flag as -S-/-S-.
Jan Oskar Engene, 1 February 2002

Islenska Lanhelgisgæslan (Icelandic Coast Guard's Division of Air Operations) was formed in 29 Dec. 1955. According toCochrane and Elliott (1998), the State flag and ensign and the coat of arms are carried as markings. Examples can be seen athttp://www.airliners.net/open.file/455660/L/ andhttp://www.airliners.net/open.file/233597/L/.
Dov Gutterman, 17 June 2004

Up till this year (1998) Iceland had six official flags, established bythe flag law and a presidential proclamation, both of 1944.These were the national flag, the state flag (swallow-tailed),the president's flag, the customs flag, the flag of the postand telecommunications service, and the pilot flag.

On 12 June 1998 Iceland's parliament adopted an act toamend the flag law of 17 June 1944. Two flags were abolished by the amendment: The flag of the post and telecommunications service (because of privatization) and thepilot flag (this had gone out of use). This means thatIceland now has four official flags: The national flag,the swallow-tailed state flag, the president's flag, and thecustoms flag. The presidential flag and the customs flagare both based on the swallow-tailed state flag. In thepresident's flag the national arms of Iceland are set on awhite panel in the centre of the cross. The customs flaghas a silver T in the canton.
Jan Oskar Engene, 14 December 1998

The presidential flag was adopted 18 July 1944. The flag isswallow-tailed.
Jan Oskar Engene, 24 June 1996

The state flag defaced with a square white panel in the middle of the cross (apparently the size of squarepanel is 8 units [one unit being 1/18 of hoist]), with thenationalcoat of arms.
Željko Heimer, 1 February 2002

Customs ensign

The Customs Ensign is like the State Flag, with a white (silver) sans-serif letter T (T stands for "Toll"?).Album des Pavillons shows a sans-serif letter T(also in correction 1), but other sources show it in a serif-style (Times New Roman?) letter.Maybe the details of the letter are not defined.
Željko Heimer, 1 February 2002

I believe the relevant legal documents only speak of a T. In former times the T seems to have beenserif-style, but the modern version is not. According to an official flag bookHermansson(1991) the letter is coloured silver grey.
Jan Oskar Engene, 1 February 2002

Onthe web page of the Prime Ministerit is noted that the height of the letter T is half the width of the canton. It is also said that the T is coloured silver.
Željko Heimer, 6 July 2008

1944-ca. 1980 Customs Ensign

 ,9:16 image byJan Oskar Engene

The version without a crown and with a serif-style letter T was in use from1944 to about 1980.

1919 Customs Ensign

 ,9:16 image byJan Oskar Engene

This flag and ensign was also established by the Royal Resolution No. 1 on the Law on the swallow-tailed flag and its use, dated 12. February 1919.Again, the badge, capital T, is specified as silver and the crown as golden. And again: The blue colour must be ultramarine. When Iceland becamea Republic in 1944, the crown was dropped from the customs flag and ensign and the badge consisted of the silver capital T only (flag act of17 July 1944).
Jan Oskar Engene, 2 February 2002

This crowned flag is shown inFlaggenbuch(1939)as used before Iceland was a republic. Two other similarly defaced flags are shown inFlaggenbuch (Post and Telegraph Ensigns),but apparently not used today. I guess the service was privatized at one time or something like that. Were thereever uncrowned versions of the two ensigns?
Željko Heimer, 1 February 2002

Originally, there were separate ensigns for the Post and the Telegraph, both with crowned emblems. These were combined into a common flag, againwith crowned emblem, a couple of years before World War 2. And you are right, the modern PTT flag was discontinued because the PTT was privatized.
Jan Oskar Engene, 1 February 2002

Pilot Flag

 26:33, image byŽeljko Heimer

White-bordered national flag. Width of the border is gives as 4 units (unit being 1/18 of national flag hoist) therefore making the total ratio 26:33.
Source:Album des Pavillons (2000). NotethatAlbum des Pavillons (1990 edition) does not include thisflag. The 1995 
recapitulative edition of the Album shows it, though. None oflate pre-1990 corrections mention anything about Iceland.

Željko Heimer, 1 February 2002

The pilot flag was introduced by the very same legislation that established the post andtelegraph flag in 1919. It is described this way in the Royal Resolution: "The pilot flag shall be like the merchant flag but with a white border allaround that is as wide as the cross, that is 4/7 of the breadth of the blue panels." Though the pilot flag was long out of use, it was only formallytaken out of the flag act in 1998 when parliament revised Iceland's flag legislation (see comment). I am not sure exactly when the pilot flag was replaced by the internationally recognized signal flagused in other countries, so I can't say for sure if it survived long enough to have existed in both sky blue and darker blue versions.

Jan Oskar Engene, 4 February 2002

Coast Guard

 image byZoltan Horvath,12 June 2024

The new Coast Guard flag is white charged with new logo and Icelandic name of Coast Guard written above and under the logo.

https://www.lhg.is
https://www.reddit.com/...the_icelandic_coast_guard/
Zoltan Horvath,12 June 2024

Previous flag

image byH.M.

The new symbol of the coast guard was adopted on 1 September 2001. The flag appears to reflect a lack of a sense of history, but the old symbol under which we fought the cod wars with the British was in blue with a white anchor, our national colors.
H.M., 7 December 2002

Coast Guard aviation racing stripe & fin flash 1955-

   images byNozomi Kariyasu, 12 June 2024

    images byZoltan Horvath, 12 June 2024

Other pictures show the racing stripe in reverse orientation.
Zoltan Horvath, 12 June 2024

On fixed wing aircraft the racing stripe leans forward, and is backward on the helicopters. On vessels, it leans forward.
Dave Fowler, 12 June 2024

Post Ensign

  9:16 image byJan Oskar Engene

The state ensign defaced with a silver post horn crowned with a golden crown.The details of the horn are not clearly visible, so I leave it like this. 
Željko Heimer, 1 February 2002

The post flag and ensign was established by Royal Resolution No. 1 on the Law on the swallow-tailed flag and its use, dated12 February 1919. The badge is specified as silver and the crown as golden (Source: Lagasafn.Gildandi lög íslenzk 1931, Reykjavík: Bókadeild Menningarsjóðs, 1932, p. 16). Note that the blue colour must be ultramarine. The flag was used untila 1938 Royal Resolution decided on a common post and telegraph flag, presumably also with a Royal crown. This flag was in turn formallyabolished when Iceland became a republic in 1944 (flag act of 17 July 1944).
Jan Oskar Engene, 2 February 2002

Telegraph Ensign

  9:16 image byJan Oskar Engene

State ensign defaced with silver five-pointed star from which are emerging eight thunderbolts crowned with golden crown.
Željko Heimer, 1 February 2002

This flag and ensign was also established by the 12 February 1919 Royal Resolution No. 1 on the Law on the swallow tailed flag and its use. As withthe other flags, the badge is specified as silver and the crown as golden, and again the blue colour must be ultramarine. The flag was used until aRoyal Resolution of 13 January 1938 decided on a common post and telegraph 
flag. Unfortunately, I have do not have a copy of this document and I am not sure exactly what the combined emblem looked like.Again, the combined post and telegraph flag with the royal crown as part of the badgewas abolished when Iceland became a republic in 1944 (flag act of 17 July 1944).
Jan Oskar Engene, 2 February 2002

Post and Telegraph Ensign

 9:16 image byJan Oskar Engene

The final version of the post and telegraph flag before its eliminationis based on the drawing found inHermansson(1991). Though the source is an official one, I am a bit skeptical about the emblem in the illustration of this particular flag. It is outlined in a very thin silver line which would make the emblem near to invisible in an actual flag.
Jan Oskar Engene, 4 February 2002

1919 version

 9:16 image byJan Oskar Engene

We might deduce what the emblem looked like from the known designs of the post and telegraph flags before and after the crown was removed.Then we arrive at something like the above image. Note that this is nothing more than a hypothetical reconstruction. One point ofuncertainty is the number of bolts of lightning: The 1919 version had eight bolts whereas there are only 6 in some illustrations of the 1944 flag(including the most modern version abolished in 1998).
Jan Oskar Engene, 4 February 2002