Fine and Rare, Number 4

The "Fine and Rare" pages of this blog is a space where I sometimes share some of the "gems" (in my opinion) and favorites from my personal collections. Some will be rare, some will just be of exceptional quality, some will merely be unusual-- a few will be "all of the above."

Sweden 1872: 20 öre red Ringtyp, perf 14, a very fine used example with full upright strike of extremely rare "FJÄRÅS KLOCKAREGÅRD 3.2.1877" town cancel. Facit number 22g. With certificate by Helena Obermüller-Wilén.

One of my primary specialized collections is of town cancels on classic Swedish stamps, namely the "Arms" and "Circle" types, issued between 1855 and about 1891. In Sweden, these stamp series are known as "Vapentyp" and "Ringtyp," respectively. I originally got interested in this area of collecting after purchasing an old accumulation from a dealer in Copenhagen, Denmark-- and noticing how attractive many early Swedish cancels were.

Cancel collecting is a "big deal" in Swedish philately. Collecting Ortstämplar (town/place cancels) is part of a popular trend known as "hembygdsfilateli" (literally "home municipality philately"), where collectors specialize in the postal history of a specific town, county or region of Sweden... typically the area where they grew up, or where their ancestors came from.

This stamp came to me some 15 years ago as part of a very disappointing mail auction lot, described as a "very fine specialized group of classic Sweden," which in fact was a group of primarily "awful spacefillers." This stamp was one of the better ones, VF and with just one nibbed perf-- still, no great rarity... until I looked up the postmark.

Fjärås Klockaregård was no more than a tiny "place," not far from the town of Kungsbacka in Halland, Sweden. Mail was only handled there from the beginning of 1874 till around March of 1877. As you can probably imagine, if you take a place with perhaps 100 people, in the 1870s, and a postal depot only open for a little over three years... you end up with very few surviving postmarks.

This became the first truly rare postmark in my Swedish cancel collection. I sent it off to Sweden for certification, and it came back with a clean "genuine" certificate.

The "base" value of Facit no. 22g is 70:- Swedish kr. (or about US$10.50). The cancel, however, carries a premium of 3500:- Swedish kr. (or about US$525.00) according to the Swedish Facit Postal catalogue. I have never seen another example of this rare cancel, either in auction catalogs, or in other collections.

Fine and Rare, Number 3

The "Fine and Rare" pages of this blog is a space where I sometimes share some of the "gems" (in my opinion) and favorites from my personal collections. Some will be rare, some will just be of exceptional quality, some will merely be unusual-- a few will be "all of the above."

Sweden 1877: 50 öre rose Ringtyp perf 13, very fine used example with manuscript marking "Aneby 2/3 82" in black ink, Facit number 36e.

For a lot of people, an "ink cancelled" stamp is either considered to be defective or worthless. After all, when we get a letter or package in the mail and the stamps have been "cancelled" by the mail carrier's ballpoint pen or marker, we tend to get annoyed because we think the stamps have been "ruined."

Indeed, this is true for most stamps, from most countries-- even old stamps. 

Ink "cancels" come about when postal workers at the original source post office somehow overlooked canceling the stamp on an envelope or package. Typically, it falls to the mail carrier making the final delivery to notice-- and then act on-- an uncancelled stamp in the mail stream. 

In Sweden, it was quite rare that stamps in the "classic" period (pre-1900) did not receive a proper postmark-- as such, ink cancellations are quite collectible, and become part of Swedish postmark collections. Unlike many other countries, an early ink cancellation from Sweden does not indicate a "revenue" usage... all such markings were applied to stamps in the actual mail stream.

What makes this particular stamp interesting is that it has the actual town and date fully written on it. Many stamps were canceled with a simple "X", OR the town and date were large enough to spill over onto the envelope. Although not really a "cancel" in the strict sense, stamps like these are prized by postal historians and cancel collectors alike.

This stamp came to me in an approval selection where it was marked "defective" and offered at 10% of the stamp's catalogue value. Needless to say, I was very happy to be able to add it to my cancel collection!

The base value of the 50 öre stamp in pale rose (Facit 36e) is 70:- Swedish kronor (or about US $11.50). The additional value of a "town and date" marking like this on a loose stamp from the classic period is a minimum of 400:- Swedish kr. (or about US $65.00), making this quite the "bargain" compared to its original price of about 70 cents. 

Fine and Rare, Number 2

The "Fine and Rare" pages of this blog is a space where I sometimes share some of the "gems" (in my opinion) and favorites from my personal collections. Some will be rare, some will just be of exceptional quality, some will merely be unusual-- a few will be "all of the above."

Denmark 1915: 5 kroner brownish red, watermarked multiple crosses, perfed 14 x 14 1/2, depicting the Central Post Office in Copenhagen. Very fine used copy with the major variety "Plate flaw: KJØBFNHAVN instead of KJØBENHAVN in caption," AFA Catalogue No. 81x. 

The 5 Kroner "Central Post Office" stamp of Denmark has never been a common stamp. First issued in 1912 with the "large crown" watermark, then reissued in with the "multiple crosses" watermark, only about 86,000 copies of each stamp were printed. One stamp in each sheet of 50 has one of Denmark's most significant and widely recognized plate flaws: Instead of "KJØBENHAVNS" in the caption below the building, the word is "KJØBFNHAVNS."

This particularly nice example came to be in my collection by way of the APS's online "Stamp Store." It was actually a surprise-- I was looking for a nice copy of this stamp to replace the existing copy I had. You see, this stamp was mostly used on parcel cards, and most used examples have partial strikes of 2-3 postmarks, and I was ready for a nicer copy. Pleased to have found an attractive copy for a fair price, I was very excited to discover that I had actually acquired a major variety.

Just to make sure that everything was OK, I sent the stamp to Denmark to be examined and certified by Lasse Nielsen, Denmark's foremost philatelic authority. It came back with a "squaky-clean" certificate and remains one of the "best" stamps in my Denmark collection.

Although not listed by Scott, this variety is listed in the Danish AFA stamp catalogue as no. 81x. It is also included in other major European stamp catalogues. Because the "base" stamp already carries a fairly high value, the variety is even more expensive-- and quite difficult to find. It currently lists for 4200,- Danish Kr. (about US $820.00).

Fine and Rare, Number 1

The "Fine and Rare" section of this blog is a space in which I will periodically show off some of the "gems" from my personal collections. Not necessarily "valuable," but certainly unusual.

Denmark 1873: 4 skilling red Official, perf 14 x 13 1/2. Flawless condition and XF centering, with fresh bright color. Centrally postmarked with light numeral cancel "238" (Thorshavn, Faroe Islands).

Found this stamp in an APS Circuit sales book, some years ago. It turned out to be a "double bargain."

For starters, it was just a beautiful stamp with great eye appeal. But I noticed that it was actually the scarcer 4 skilling official, misidentified as the much more common 8 øre value, issued in 1875. These early Officials are not so easy to find, in perfect condition, so I was happy... and the nice centrally placed numeral cancel was just a bonus.

A little further research revealed that the numeral cancel "238" was assigned to the post office at Thorshavn in the Faroe Islands. This is actually one of the rarest of the numeral cancels used in Denmark, and to have it on a stamp in perfect condition only adds to the value. So this "common" stamp-- at first glance-- actually became one of my "gems."

The 1995 AFA Specialkatalog has a section listing Faroese cancels on Danish stamps, and it values the "238" numeral cancel on a single stamp at 4500,- Danish kroner-- the equivalent of about US$870.00.