The Danish postal service will deliver its last letter on December 30, ending a tradition that lasted more than 400 years. PostNord, the company formed by merging Swedish and Danish postal services in 2009, announced this decision earlier in 2023. It will cut 1,500 jobs and remove 1,500 red postboxes in Denmark due to "increasing digitalisation". PostNord said Denmark is "one of the most digitalised countries in the world" and the demand for letters has "fallen drastically". Meanwhile, online shopping and parcel deliveries are rising, so PostNord will now focus on parcels. Recently, 1,000 classic red postboxes were sold within three hours, priced between 1,500 and 2,000 DKK each. Another 200 postboxes will be auctioned in January. Although PostNord will stop letter deliveries in Denmark, it will continue the service in Sweden. PostNord will refund unused Danish stamps for a limited time. Danes can still send letters through Dao, a private delivery company that currently handles about 30 million letters and plans to expand to 80 million next year. However, letters must now be dropped off at Dao shops or collected from home for an extra fee, with postage paid online or by app. Denmark's postal service dates back to 1624 but letter sending dropped by over 90% in the last 25 years. Interestingly, young Danes aged 18 to 34 are sending two to three times more letters than older groups. Trend researcher Mads Arlien-Søborg says young people "look for a counterbalance to digital oversaturation," making letter writing a "conscious choice." Danish law requires a letter delivery option. If Dao stops deliveries, the government must appoint another company. A transport ministry source said there would be no "practical difference" next year since people can still send and receive letters, just through a different firm. Magnus Restofte, director of Copenhagen’s Enigma postal museum, noted that reversing digital communication is "quite difficult" and Denmark cannot "go back to what it was." Denmark’s national digital ID system, MitID, sends official messages digitally to 97% of those aged 15 and over. Only 5% opt for physical mail. Restofte said the public is "pragmatic" about the change since few receive physical letters now. He added that physical letters have gained special value because they show time and effort spent by sender. PostNord Denmark’s deputy CEO Kim Pedersen said, "We have been the Danish postal service for 400 years, and therefore it is a difficult decision to tie the knot on that part of our history. The Danes have become more and more digital and this means there are very few letters left today, and the decline continues so significantly that the letter market is no longer profitable."