If i were looking for a new country to collect i would seriously consider Sweden. their stamps are not expensive except for that yellow 3 skilling or whatever it is and only one person can have that at a time. I think their stamps show what i call a simple genius and humanity !
Sweden appeals to me because of the engraved beauty of their stamps. also maybe because recent geneological research uncovered I am descended from some Swedish kings.
One drawback- most of their stamps after 1940 or so are in booklet/coil format. There is a difference in how these are collected; in Europe collectors go for pairs on the booklet stamps in order to have examples of imperf-orates on every possible side, also I think for pairs on the coils, and European printed albums reflect this. Over here it is mostly one of each. Thank God, US collectors do not follow this on our stamps!
Conquering the world one stamp at a time 10 Oct 2015 11:05:48pm
re: Sweden the simple genius of their stamps
I started collecting Sweden a little while ago and quickly found out all the many ways that the country is collected. I finally settled on a combination of European and American style collecting. Firstly, I am collecting both mint and used singles, as well as the booklet pairs in either mint or used. I am also collecting shades and types on the earlies. Will probably also include mint or used booklet panes on the ones where all the stamps in the pane are different designs. Still on the fence about complete booklets though. I seem to be getting a certain amount by accident. It seems like every time I buy a lot or group of Swedish stamps, there is a couple of them included. Also, making my own pages to accommodate everything I want. Sweden has issued MANY stamps over the years, so this will not be a small undertaking for me.
What got me started in Sweden firstly was the cancels on the early stamps, then I saw all the beautifully engraved issues. Combine all that with the relatively inexpensiveness of them and you can have a nice collection for not that much money.
" ... in Europe ... pairs on the booklet stamps ... pairs on the coils ... Over here it is mostly one of each. Thank God, US collectors do not follow this on our stamps! ..."
I have seen arguments about whether/not it is permissible/advised to explode a booklet - so that the whole set of whole panes could be readily displayed - or if whole booklets are best left intact.
This led me to create the new designation UXBOS (Unexploded Booklet, Original Staple).
Similarly, decades ago, the American stamp collecting fraternity argued about whether plate number coils should be collected in strips of 3 stamps - or if only strips of 5 would do - even as people 'collected' whole rolls, not even daring to extract the plate number coil strips.
After all, if Original Gum became a requirement, why not Original Cellophane Wrapper?
Americans content ourselves with 'one of each' for booklet & coil stamps?
It is the first I have heard of it.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
Now i am reminded of our late club president Joe..he loved to tell the story of how he had a roll of official stamps in his desk and one day for whatever reason his step daughter needed a stamp and took one from the roll. She was banned from his stamp room for life !
My Sweden collection is pretty much along the lines of RBPuzzles, except I do collect all booklet panes, mostly mnh. I like to collect all of the issues the same way Scott's lists them in the catalog, since that is basically the way the album is set up anyway. Most of what I am missing is some of the pairs, but will find them someday, whenever I can actually do some work on the collection.
Mike
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"It's been three years now, since I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet..."
Conquering the world one stamp at a time 12 Oct 2015 05:00:17pm
re: Sweden the simple genius of their stamps
Capestampman - I am also going by Scott, for the most part. I'm designing my album pages by Scott, but adding in the pairs, major varieties, and shades according to Facit. I'm going by Scott mostly because the show dealers here in the US stock their material by Scott. Problem is finding the varieties, etc.., because you have to examine everything to find something you are looking for.
"Americans content ourselves with 'one of each' for booklet & coil stamps?"
That's if they collect Swedish stamps. Do Americans even collect booklet singles of US stamps? I've never had an album with spaces for them. I always have to stick them in the margins. Scott doesn't even list US booklet singles. The most egregious example must be the 1943 airmail C25, which looks like a coil (the bottom stamp of the pane is imperf on three sides!).
I guess that just proves the point though. I'm happy with one booklet single for each. I don't care if it's imperf on the left or the right. But if I do get a booklet pair, I happily stick that in my album. (in the margin...)
Conquering the world one stamp at a time 13 Oct 2015 06:02:26am
re: Sweden the simple genius of their stamps
I always thought, here in the US, that booklet singles were looked down upon as inferior copies. Even to the point that some booklet singles with wide margins have had fake perforations put on to create a fully perfed copy. Simply crazy!
What really strikes me about the slightly older Swedish stamps is the design and use of colour (note correct spelling, you Yanks!). There are a lot of bold and solid colours, esp on the sets from the 20s and 30s commemorating UPU and Sweden's postal history and the king's various birthdays. I'm reminded of the rich colours used in 19th century houses here in UK - deep greens and magentas.
Design is also very original - with some unusual viewpoints. There's a stamp showing a girl diving - viewed from above, so you just see her curled body and the rippling water below. Can't remember the year - the 60s I think, and probably engraved by Slania, as so many are.
And their originality continues - like the joke on the stamp showing two old friends crossing a snow covered field. Neither will take the footpath from the other so they both walk in the snow!
Love Swedish stamps! Well, more accurately the socked-on-the-nose cancels they frequently come with. I'm halfheartedly working on a collection of Sweden, the only restriction being that every stamp must have a socked-on-the-nose handstamp cancel.
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 29 Oct 2015 10:11:04pm
re: Sweden the simple genius of their stamps
Taking a cue from the Machin series where a full perforation stamp may be from one printer and source, a stamp imperfed on one side from another while a coil a completely different printer or process, I have tried to collect other nations that way as well.
So I usually mount a "SEL" next to a "SER"( Straight Edge Left or Straight Edge Right ) and if available an SELB next to an SELT along with a Coil (vertical SERL or horizontal SEBT) and a perfed all around when such was printed.
Inserted within the US collection are blank pages that have, for instance, a complete reconstructed pane of the Simpsons or one of several state commemoratives issued in panes of twenty or twenty-five.
It takes a while to find nice lightly cancelled examples of each position.
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Charlie, you can try collecting Guatemala...lots of different vendors printed the stamps..different paper, different perfs for sure(even sewing machines )..just a suggestion, i do not get into it all that deep myself..like some flyspeck collectors !
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 19 Nov 2015 09:22:40pm
re: Sweden the simple genius of their stamps
" .... I do not get into it all that deep myself .. like some flyspeck collectors !
But that will limit you to only about the first 1,000 Machins.
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
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