The relationship between privately produced stamps and those for public use is a complex one, and how these stamps are classified has a tremendous impact on their future philatelic popularity. Thule has existed, at least on maps and in cartographers imagination, for over 2,500 years. The name really refers to the far north, and whenever early map makers didn’t know what was farther north than the farthest thing they could document, they called it Thule. Northwestern Greenland is about as far north as you can get, and so, to honor this tradition of the far north being called Thule, that is what these early miners named it. The stamps that they issued were a set of five and were fairly crude. They have the feel of a hasty design by men trying to find something to do during the 24 hour winter nights (they were issued for a mining colony). The status of these stamps is on the order of locals/fantasies. They are not listed in the Scott catalog but are listed in Facit, the specialized Scandinavian catalog, at about $10 per set. As long as I can remember, there has been little demand for this set. They are not common, but because they are not in Scott or Michel, very few collectors seem to want them even though they come from a very popular collecting area