madbaker
Member 
Posts: 689 
What I collect: (Mark) General worldwide collector (to 1975 or so) with a soft spot for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
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Post by madbaker on Mar 8, 2021 4:09:46 GMT
Hello Sweden collectors!
I'm building out my Sweden album pages and stopped this evening to consider how I might segment the collection. This is mainly to figure out where to divide things up between binders.
Sweden hasn't had a lot of turmoil during the stamp issuing era, at least not as I can tell. So it's not like Germany where you might conceive of five or six sub groupings. Or Russia - USSR - post Soviet issues.
I've thought of a few ways but they are a little lopsided:
- By Reign. Which would move all stamps post 1973 (Carl XVI Gustaf) to volume 2.
- By postal service: I read that the Swedish postal service changed in 1994 from Postverkt to Posten AB, and again in 2009 to Postnord.
- A break in 1905 as Sweden-Norway union dissolves and again in 1974 when Sweden's 'constitution' was formalized. Although the union dissolution is probably more significant for Norway.
I'm still thinking it over. But I'm curious how other Sweden collectors might think of the timeline of their collection.
Any thoughts?
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norsten
Member
Posts: 174
What I collect: Definitives from Western Europe, Swedish postmarks
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Post by norsten on Mar 8, 2021 7:10:29 GMT
Yes, Sweden has been a fairly stable country (thankfully, since I happen to live here), but it makes it harder to use a simple setupof logical breakpoints. I have been quite pragmatic in the past using a combination of reign and postal service. Here is a few additional breakpoints which might be of use:
Postal service:
- 1920: The postal service started to print stamps in-house - 1936: Last stamp printed by the Stickney press - 1997: First stamp issued without a fixed face value - 2000: First self-adhesive stamp
- 2017: Last stamps issued that was printed in-house
Significant political events:
- 1995: Sweden joined the European Union
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Post by greaden on Mar 8, 2021 14:13:35 GMT
Maybe block off the period when Slania was setting the standard for design.
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madbaker
Member
Posts: 689
What I collect: (Mark) General worldwide collector (to 1975 or so) with a soft spot for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
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Post by madbaker on Mar 8, 2021 16:46:22 GMT
Awesome ideas. Thanks for this norsten and greaden. I forgot to mention that this question was inspired by looking at the Russia pages at ruskystamps.com and his title pages for each volume of the collection. He's done a very nice job of it. |
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kasvik
Member
Posts: 540
What I collect: Cancels mostly, especially Sweden Gävle and Lidingö, Switzerland Geneva, Germany Pforzheim
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Post by kasvik on Mar 9, 2021 5:15:44 GMT
I vote for by reign, kinda. My feeling is arbitrariness has to win; some Swedish kings stick around a bit. Maybe reigns, modified for start of major series:
1855 Classic classics.
1885 Oscar II portrait stamps start. 1910 Gustaf V arrives on stamps.
1920 Coil era has it's own distinctivenesses, as norsten notes.
1932 Commemoratives start (if you ignore the 1924 Post Congresses).
1950 Gustaf Adolf corresponds roughly to commemorative mass marketing. 1973 Carl Gustaf. Why not? It's a massive period, and not over, with no natural breaks, right?
2009 PostNord very roughly coincides with the crimes of self-adhesives and water soluble cancellations.
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,719
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Mar 11, 2021 22:37:30 GMT
2009 PostNord very roughly coincides with the crimes of self-adhesives and water soluble cancellations. Didn't philatelia say somewhere that she has quit collecting Sweden at the point where their self-adhesive stamps were no longer able to be soaked off the envelope? And Terri, do you have a year for that? I don't have much of anything past 2011 or so, when I stopped buying mountains of kiloware and started sorting and soaking mountains of kiloware ... Ryan |
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madbaker
Member
Posts: 689
What I collect: (Mark) General worldwide collector (to 1975 or so) with a soft spot for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
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Post by madbaker on Mar 12, 2021 3:40:05 GMT
Ryan, I'm not sure. I pretty much stopped at 2000. When I got back into collecting in 1995, I focused on Sweden due to their excellent engraved issues and lovely cancels. Both of those practices seemed to stop around 2000, and by 2004 for sure. It's as if, when they went to spray cancels, someone asked "what's the ugliest, bulkiest spray cancelling machine we can buy" and bought that.
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norsten
Member
Posts: 174
What I collect: Definitives from Western Europe, Swedish postmarks
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Post by norsten on Mar 12, 2021 7:13:32 GMT
I agree that there has certainly be been a decline in both the quality of stamps and cancels and this actually led me to stop collecting altogether somewhere in the early 2000s, but now I'm back. Here are some timepoints when things went the wrong way from a philatelic point of view (in my opinion...):
1996 - Sorting and cancelling were concentrated to only a few postal centers.
1998 - First inkjet cancels 2000 - First self-adhesive stamp 2016 - Self-adhesives became unsoakable in water 2016 - Last engraved stamp issued
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philatelia
Member
Captain Jack - my best kiloware find ever!
Posts: 3,400
What I collect: Ireland, Japan, Scandy, USA, Venezuela, Vatican, Bermuda, Austria
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Post by philatelia on Mar 12, 2021 22:35:10 GMT
Yes, I decided to not go out of my way to collect recent material for Sweden and several other areas. By that I mean that I don't buy new issues or kiloware ( which is almost impossible to find for most countries anyways) and I usually don't bother adding them to wishlists. But if they show up in an auction lot or in a trade, I keep them.
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madbaker
Member
Posts: 689
What I collect: (Mark) General worldwide collector (to 1975 or so) with a soft spot for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
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Post by madbaker on Mar 20, 2021 3:06:05 GMT
I know you've all been waiting with bated breath while I figure this out. 
I think I've decided on my Volume 1 breakpoint. It's going to be the King Gustav VI Adolf definitive set.
This afternoon AlbumEasy and I sailed up to the start of the New Numeral type of 1951 and I was wondering for a good way to write these up, knowing that there were some se-tenant booklet pairs with the King. So I started reading the excellent Swedish Definitives blog to get the low down and was mesmerized.
Now here's an issue I can really sink my teeth into! Over a dozen different booklets, three different Types for the King, and more.
But it makes a great breakpoint because after this set, Swedish definitives shifted away from Kings and Numbers to much more pictorial, varied and, well, modern issues. This also marks the transition from Ewert as the primary Sweden engraver to the great Slania, which also changed the look of Sweden's stamp issues. So it seems like a great place to end Volume 1 and begin Volume 2.
I anticipate writing up some quite specialized pages for the definitive sets, according to when they were issued, postal rates, etc. even though there will be many, many spaces to fill. How exciting!
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cursus
Member
Posts: 1,762
What I collect: Catalan Cinderellas. Used Switzerland, UK, Scandinavia, Germany & Austria. Postal History of Barcelona & Estonia. Catalonia pictorial postmarks.
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Post by cursus on Mar 20, 2021 8:02:38 GMT
When, about 40 years ago, I started collecting mint Swedish stamps, thrilled by Slania engravings. Not having "deep pockets", my logical starting point was the start of the present king, 1973. I set an standing order with Swedish PO and began "to go backwards.
Later, I was given an old Scandinavian album going up to 1950 by a friend, and started to try to fill it up with the scarce oldies that I had. This time, I decided to collect used stamps, as it was both cheaper and more challenging. Around 1993, I closed my account with Swedish PO, due to financial stress.
After a gap, I restarted collecting Sweden, this time only used stamps. The logical step was to cover the 1951-1973 years, and the post 1993 ones. I don't think I'll go further than 1995 or 2000. I don't feel attraction for modern stamps (perhaps, is just, that I'm getting older).
Having almost completed the 1930-1995 era. What else?
I know that I could never have a complete Sweden collection and I don't have anyone to pass my collection (I'm a childless single). Perhaps I should get an special Facit and start studying the pre-1930 stamps... Who knows?
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