Specialized Study Of Modern Swedish Stamps And Booklets

Over a year ago, I bought at auction a shoebox of modern mint Sweden in glassines, and in November 2023 I bought a large accumulation of booklets. Now, I am passionate about modern issues because I believe they are the future of the hobby. It is not too outrageous when you stop to consider that all of the classic issues that so many enjoy studying and collecting are only as enjoyable as they are because the body of literature exists to allow collectors to really understand the significance of what they have. Those works exist because long dead philatelists who lived 80, 90, 100 or 110 plus years ago meticulously studied these stamps when they were current and readily available for a reasonable sum. Most, if not all of those works could not be replicated today by the average philatelist, because the cost of the stamps is so high that they would have to be very wealthy to afford the number required to form a study large enough to draw statistically valid conclusions from. In my view then, the time to study the modern material is right now, while it is still available, and still affordable.

With this attitude in mind, I set about studying the material and getting it ready to list in this week's auction, which closes on Wednesday night this week. Much to my surprise, in addition to the detail that is listed in Facit, there is so much that is not listed, like tagging variations, differences in the paper fluorescence of the covers and the markings that appear in the booklet tabs. One surprising thing that came out of it was that because Swedish booklets used the same printing presses that BABN used to print many stamps of the 1967-1972 Centennial definitives, that it is worth re-examining these, in light of the new information learned from studying the variations in the Swedish booklets and singles.

Here are some pictures of some of the items I found while lotting this week.








I'd be interested to see what you all think and whether you would have any interest in this material

Sounds like your finding a lot of interesting stuff . The hard part will be to get other collectors interested , when you get a few people on board then connect with the standard catalogs and one of the specialized catalogs .

The catalog publishers will want to know that there is a interest and a market in what your telling them ,so don't contact them until others are on board ,that is the mistake others make in trying to get stuff listed .

Oh, I wouldn't bother doing that. I just sell what I find in the auction each week and publish my findings on forums, on my own blog and social media. I don't care to try and get any of it listed.

What you find about Swedsh booklets is also true for US booklets. All these differences in cover and paper fluorescence are also present on many US issues. Though the Scott Specalised does not mention any of it, it is an interesting area for booklet specialists.

Every year, I am going to a stamp show in Sindelfingen/now Ulm where there always is a Swedish dealer booth area that has boxes and boxes full of Swedish/Nordic booklets. Whenever I pass the booth, there are people picking through the boxes, looking for varieties. Often for hours, so there are specialist collectors out there.

No US booklets at the shows, unfortunately...

I'm sure there are. The thing with developing any new specialty is that it is important to have sources of supply for collectors that go beyond just boxes of items for them to rummage through. I know that offering specialized themes like this in my weekly auction is risky, but I feel it is important to feature them to help nurture the interest that already exists, as well as to create new interest among collectors. You can't be interested in a topic if you don't even know it is a thing.

Brixtonchrome: I agree with you about the importance of creating the literature about modern stamps now, before they become difficult to find. I've often thought the same thing about the older literature: we couldn't assemble such studies of the rarer stamps today.

Things have also changed with the stamps of today in another way. Since people don't write as many letters now and don't even send as much mail of any sort, there won't be as many covers to examine in the future. With so many stamps ripped from envelopes, the pool of intact covers will be rare, in my opinion. Now is the time to examine trends in postal operations and the policies and procedures with respect to stamped mail. While we can buy unused stamps at face value, we should do so, and examine our holdings for variations.

I've noticed that in the US, there are a LOT more letters which aren't getting cancels on the stamps. I get letters and packages which have pristine stamps. Now, I don't like gross, muddy, spray-on cancels, but NO postmark at all on so many mailpieces is weird to me. That's a new(ish) trend.

So, yeah, I expect modern stamps to become scarce fairly fast, and now is a great time to examine current issues as well as those of the recent past.

You got me to thinking there :-}

Josh