Sweden home page

Introduction

The officals, and the postage dues of Sweden are frankly not much to look at. They offer some interesting plating problems, however, and a good variety of shades. SOTN cancels are frequent. The Swedish evidently felt these stamps were more trouble than they were worth by the early years of the 20th century when they were discontinued.

Table of Contents

  1. Large officials
  2. Small officials
  3. Postage dues

    The Large Officials

     There are two designs used for Swedish officials, in Scott's listing. They are called the "large officials" and the "small officials". Each shares the characteristics of the definitives printed at the same time.

    The large officials were current during the Ringtype period and show the same varieties: shades, plate flaws and perforation varieties. They were not released with posthorns on the back.

    The Perf 14 officials


    There were 10 different denominations of officals in the perf 14 period (1874-1880). They all have the same design. Scott numbers them as O1-11 (listing two shades of the 6 ore). All save the used 12 ore (letter rate) are expensive for Swedish issues. Scott catalogs them used between $14 and $95, which makes 10 of the 11 Scott numbers among the Swedish stamps usually missing from collections, or present but damaged. It also makes collecting the many plate flaws a somewhat expensive proposition.

    The Perf 13 officials (1881-93)


    The official series in the perf 13 period has 12 values, and two color changes for a total of 14 major stamps. These are Scott O12-25. They are considerably more affordable than the perf 14 period issues, but still 4 of them are in the $9-$30 range.

    Collecting the Large Officials
    Much interest among collectors of 19th century Sweden focuses on town names - there are few enough to make it practical to collect, and in this period SOTN cancels were the norm. However my own interests do not include these. I find myself interested in:

    1. Plate flaws
    2. Year dates
    3. Shades as they tie in to year dates

    Plate Flaws
    Much of the current work on plate flaws has been done by Martin Fishenden, of England. For reference see his booklet and articles.

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    Small Officials

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    Postage due stamps

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    This page's URL is http://www.asis.com/~edenson/swedenbob.html. Last updated 16 April 1996