Specialized Scandinavia: A Closer Look at Sweden's 12 öre Vapentyp

After you've been collecting stamps for a while and have come to realize that this hobby is something you are serious about and plan to stick with... the question of whether or not to start a "specialized" collection eventually comes up.

For me, specialization was really an offshoot of the fact that I could no longer afford (in my 20's) to buy the next stamp I needed to fill an empty space, going purely "by the main numbers." The "Specialized Scandinavia" series takes a look at some popular-- and possible-- options for specialization within the field of Scandinavian philately-- often focusing on ways to build a specialized stamp collection withOUT breaking the bank.

Today, we'll take a closer look at Sweden's 12 öre Vapentyp ("Arms type"), first issued in 1858. This is a fairly popular Swedish issue for specialists-- especially in Sweden, but also around the world.

The 12 öre blue Vapentyp was the primary stamp used for regular domestic postage within Sweden, from its issue day on July 1st, 1858 until it was replaced by the first of the Ringtyp (or "Circle Type") series on July 1st, 1872.

Although the stamp is definitely from the "Classic Period," the fact that it substantially carried the bulk of Swedish mail for 14 years means that 107 million 12 öre blue stamps were printed!

Such a large number translates into a wealth of opportunity for specialists, for a number of reasons.

First, because so many stamps were printed, the 12 öre Vapentyp remains quite affordable... notwithstanding that we're talking about a 150-year old stamp. To this day, the catalogue value for just a "basic" copy of this stamp remains around just US $2.00 or less than 20:- Swedish Kr. That makes it relatively easy to get your hands on a number of examples without spending a fortune.

In addition, the stamps weren't printed all at once-- they were supplied in multiple printings and deliveries in the course of 14 years. Sweden's Facit catalogue lists 24 distinct shades of this stamp, and that just covers the basics. Some of these shades can be quite difficult to find, and even though the base stamp is inexpensive, a nice copy of a rare shade might set you back US

Some shades, like this "blackish ultramarine," are quite rare

$100.00 or more.

Next, consider that there were also three distinctly different perforation machines used, and that the stamps were printed from eight different plates.

With these variables as a starting point, we can then add that printing "technology" in 1858 was nowhere near as sophisticated as it is today. This means that it was rather easy for varieties to come up... both as a result of small variations in the original-- hand made-- printing plates, and as a result of plate wear and damage that occurred during the printing process.

The result is a rich source of "raw material" to serve as the basis for a specialized collection,

Of course, there are additional variations-- a collection of the 12 öre Vapentyp could also be expanded with covers and town cancels, adding a postal history element to the collection. In doing so, you can make the scope of the collection almost infinite, as there are literally tens of thousands of possibilities.

One of the benefits of taking on such an old stamp issue for specialization is that it has already been studied extensively by philatelists, so there's a significant amount of specialist information already available. Add to that the way the Internet has helped the spread of information, and you have many sources of information at your fingertips. A few quick searches on Google revealed several collector web sites with lots of detailed information about this stamp.

A cancel like "ALANÄSET" is quite rare and can add a lot
of value to a relatively common stamp.

Although I don't personally have a specialized collection of this stamp, I have definitely considered it as a possible expansion of my Sweden collection.

A good starting point might be to buy an accumulation from a reputable dealer or auction house. Sometimes "lots" of these stamps also show up on web sites like eBay. Naturally, it would be easiest to find such an accumulation at a Swedish auction house.

Some might feel more comfortable with the idea of purchasing a collection that has already been started, and then building onto it.

If you want to go the route of buying one stamp at a time, online sales venues like Delcampe, BidStart or Stamps2Go might be a better option-- but you need a place that has a good supply of lower priced items. Circuit books from an organization like the American Philatelic Society is also a worthwhile place to look.

Whatever way you go about starting your specialized collection, be aware that you'll have to make your own album pages... or do what many do with such collections-- start them out in a stock book, where it is easier to move the stamps around as the scope of the collection grows.

Above all, remember to have fun!

Modern Varieties in Danish Stamp Collecting

Just a few decades ago, specialist stamp collectors looking for plate flaws and minor varieties tended to spend hours poring over loose stamps, using magnifying glasses and even microscopes. Of course, there was a definite limit to "how much you could handle" before stiff necks and severe eye strain set in.

Denmark Scott 668/AFA 702 variety:
Part of the vertical line in wall is missing

In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the number of "varieties" reported, even on relatively modern stamps. This may sound a bit "backwards," given how technology and printing methods have improved, in this digital age-- stamps would be expected to have fewer faults.

So what gives?

I believe the invention of high quality photo scanners has made a huge difference in how we look for varieties. Let's face it-- I can now make a scan of a stock sheet of stamps and "examine" them (without eye strain!) on a scale previously unthinkable, as a single small stamp can be shown as an image that fills my entire computer monitor. Unlike using a microscope (which allows only one stamp at a time to be viewed), scans allow for lots of flexibility. Images can be cut and pasted, contrast enhanced for improved visibility and laid up next to each other for comparison-- something we couldn't even have considered, just 30 years ago.

For many years, I have kept a collection of specialized Danish stamps, with a focus on postmarks and plate flaws. Previously, I "ended" my collection with the year 1930, when Denmark switched from letterpress printed stamps to engraved stamps. I had two motivations for doing so:

One, plate flaws seemed to me to be something that was mostly "documented a long time ago," and I relied on traditional philatelic literature for Denmark (such as the AFA specialized and SAVA varieties stamp catalogues) to tell me what was a variety, and on which stamps I might be able to find it. Which was a result of....

Denmark Scott 561/AFA 578 with variety:
Missing frame line below "NISK"

Two, the thought of "finding your own plate flaws" was relatively unthinkable-- I had neither the patience, nor the eyesight, to pore over 100s of the same stamp, in order to find some minor variety. Until... my first high quality photo scanner made it possible to do so, more conveniently... and photo processing software made it much easier to compare stamps, side-by-side.

These days, I am back to looking at newer Danish stamps, with an eye towards finding plate flaws-- recorded, or not yet recorded. I have basically "expanded" my collection by 50 years, now including varieties on stamps issued up until 1980. The neat thing about this is that it opens the door for many new stamps I can add to my collection... yet at a low price (most stamps from this period are fairly common) I can afford.

Collectors of "Denmark, Specialized" also have a marvelous online research tool... in the form of the Danish online variety catalogue. Started in   the catalogue/website is created through the efforts of a volunteer "study circle" of more than 250 collectors who each contribute their finds (all with detailed images) to the catalogue database... which currently has almost 12,500 items listed. You can find the Denmark Specialized Catalogue and Study Circle here, and even though it is entirely in Danish, it is relatively simple to use, thanks to exceptionally nice graphics... and you can always use an online translator to get a sense of the text.

So, if you have a collection and have reached that "critical point" where filling the next empty space in your album will cost a lot of money-- consider starting a specialized collection of Danish stamps... the possibilities are almost endless!

Albums or Stock Books for your Stamp Collection?

I have been sorting stamps, recently.

I always presumed that pretty much all stamp collectors spent a large part of their hobby time engaged in sorting stamps and figuring out which ones to place where and in what album or book, and so forth. It wasn't until fairly recently that someone pointed out to me that many a philatelist doesn't "sort" stamps because they only acquire new material "one stamp at a time, exactly the one they need."

I have personally never collected "like that," so it served as a reminder that there are probably as many ways to collect stamps as there are stamp collectors-- and none of these ways are more "right" or "wrong" than any others.

But I digress.

A page from my Denmark specialized collection-- while there is still room!

The way I have always collected stamps-- and gotten the greatest enjoyment from the hobby, I might add-- is through the "treasure hunt method." I buy boxes and bags of random stamps, accumulations, box lots, kiloware, old collections, wads of album pages, duplicate books, even entire estates... and sort through everything in search of the items I want to add to my collections.

Later, I'll trade or sell off the stamps I don't want... but that's a whole different story, for a different day.

For about the 20th time in my stamp collecting history (which now spans some 45 years), I have been contemplating the question of "Albums vs. Stock Books."

As a specialist collector-- of postmarks, varieties, printings and so forth-- I am increasingly abandoning albums as the way to keep my collections. Albums worked fine for me when I was just collecting "one of each number" of the stamps issued by the country I was focusing on. After all, collecting "France" generally means collecting one of each stamp-- which is a very "finite" goal. There are only "X number" of spaces to fill in the album... and that doesn't really change, except by adding new pages for new issues, at the back end of the album.

The issue with this very "fixed" nature of traditional stamp albums arises when you start specializing-- and the number of stamps you might need to display in an "organized" fashion, in one area (or time period) of your album, isn't pre-determined. Sometimes you may need space for 73 stamps, sometimes for four. In this case, I am talking about the kind of album where you do your own layout on blank pages.

The problem I have repeatedly run into is creating a nice layout for a given page... and then having to repeatedly "insert" new finds where they logically/chronologically "belong," till I reach the point where the album page is either completely full... or looks like a haphazard pile of junk. Worse yet, I end up starting a new album page-- and for years I'll be looking at a page with ONE stamp on it.

A page from my France collection in a pre-printed album-- with stamps outside the spaces

Of course, I have the option of removing stamps from the overfilled page to the new page. On immediate glance, easy enough-- but since I put stamps in my albums with black Showgard style mounts, it actually becomes a pain in the rear. What's more, I'm left having to deal with all my pencil notations next to each stamp-- which I put there for identification purposes. Not to mention the fact that the whole process is extremely time consuming.

Hence, I have been gradually switching to stock books with black pages and clear strips, simply because the whole "moving stamps around" is SO much easier than dealing with an album. And the stamps still look really nice, in the book-- at least to my eye. And since I am not an exhibitor, I don't feel compelled to stick with an exhibition type format.

Stockbooks are definitely the way to go, for me, especially for the specialized collections.

My first major "moving project" involved getting my specialized collection of the Swedish "ringtyp" issue from album pages to stock books. It took a lot of time and effort, but was well worthwhile doing. As most of the varieties and plate flaws on this early issue are not well documented, I really had relatively little idea of the size and scope the collection might grow to. With stock books, I can easily move things around, as new material might demand it.

A page from my Swedish "ringtyp" collection, now housed in stockbooks

Do I still use albums? Absolutely! Most of my more "general" collections are still in albums, even though I expect some of them will move to stock books, over the years. In the future, a likely candidate seems to be my France collection (housed in a pre-printed album I've had since my teen years), which is suffering from "creeping elegance" as I have been adding SON cancels on the older issues, as well as precancels (quite common on French stamps) and a few blocks of four, as they show up.

More currently, I am considering moving my Denmark specialized from self-made album pages to stockbooks. I feel a little hesitant, because I have literally thousands of hours "invested" in creating those albums-- not to mention the many $$$'s I spent on supplies. However, some of the pages have gotten very "untidy" looking-- while others (recently added) are sadly sparse.

Maybe it's just part of the "journey" for long-time stamp collectors that we're always "tweaking" the way we keep our collections organized. And maybe that's part of what keeps us interested in our collections-- even after all these years-- the fact that there is always "something that needs to be done."

How do YOU keep your stamp collections? Are you happy with the way it's working? Do you often reorganize your collection to fit in new material?

Stamps, Valuations, Knowledge and "Fairness"

As stamp collectors, we tend to think of the primary "commodity" we spend our time with as "stamps" and things that relate to stamps.

We buy stamps; we swap stamps, and sometimes we sell stamps. At the foundation of our ability to make these trades-- with each other, and with dealers-- lies our core belief that any given stamp has a certain relative value.

After 45-odd years of involvement in philately, I increasingly have come to realize that much the foundation for trade-ability is-- as often as not-- knowledge, rather than "stamps."

20ø blackish blue. Value $20+ rather than 75c

For many of us, new stamps are added to our collections as part of a process of "treasure hunting;" that is, we go looking for (or at least are open to finding) the unexpected to fill gaps in our collections. And everybody loves a bargain!

From time to time, I attend stamp shows and bourses. Several times a month I will spend a few hours perusing eBay or one of the other online sales venues for stamps. Sometimes I visit dealers in the area; sometimes I buy lots from brick-and-mortar auctions; sometimes I am poring over a box of circuit books from the American Philatelic Society.

As often as not, new "treasures" come to me not simply because "there's a gap in my collection," but because I "found something" among the stamps offered for sale; something unexpected; something of value. For me, it is usually a rare postmark or a shade/printing of a classic stamp, or a variety/plate flaw of some kind. Whatever it may be, it tends to have a "value" that by far exceeds the marked sales price.

The "making a find" part came into play purely because I recognized something the seller did not. In other words, I was in the knowledge business.

This, in turn, invites consideration of the question of whether or not that makes me rather "mercenary" and whether or not it is "fair" to the seller that I am going to buy an item marked at $2.00, when I know it's worth $200.00. Let's pause and examine some different ways of looking at what might be considered "fair."

For one, the seller marked the item at $2.00, in the belief it was a "fair price," given his knowledge of the situation.

The HILLE postmark adds $500.00+ in value

For maybe 99% of his or her potential buyers, that stamp is "worth" $2.00... because they see the stamp as exactly what the dealer thinks he's selling.

My "other 1%" knowledge was not "free." Behind my ability to pick out a $200.00 variety lies not only 25 years of study, but probably a $1000+ investment in specialized literature.

What's more, if I were to turn around and "profit" by selling the stamp rather than keeping it it in my collection, unlike the original seller, I also have spent 25 years building the connections within the hobby the results in my being able to contact a collector who will pay me $200.00. The original seller doesn't have those connections.

So where does the notion of "fairness" lie, in these situations?

Just like a stamp has a "catalogue value," expertise has a "value." And expert knowledge typically "costs extra," regardless of your field. Your country doctor might-- or might not-- be able to heal some esoteric illness you have. A specialist-- for five times the price-- heals it in short order-- because he or she "invested" years and money in becoming a specialist. Is it "unfair" to your country doctor that he only gets $150.00 for an office visit, when the specialist gets to charge $800.00?

Is if "fair" to YOU, that you have to pay more? You could argue that it's not-- because you are "short the money"-- but in the end we all tend to get what we pay for.

My point here being that while our finding "a $200.00 stamp for $2.00" may look opportunistic and like we're getting "something for nothing," we typically have paid "a price of admission" (learning, time, experience, reference books) in order to get to a place where the transaction was even possible. Rather than viewing the situation as "unfairly taking advantage" of the seller, we can view it as "our fair reward for years of study."

Creating Albums for a Specialized Stamp Collection

For a while, I was considering writing a stereotypical "New Year's article," filled with a look back at 2011, and assorted resolutions and hopes for 2012. But the world is overflowing with those... to wit, I've already written this kind of article for three other blogs I keep.

So, I decided to do a bit of "show and tell," instead... about the primary stamp project I am working on, and will continue to work on, during 2012.

My original "Abria" France album from 1971

I've been a stamp collector since age six, and my stamps have been housed in an assortment of different places. I started with a large stockbook my father gave me. It had 12 pages, and the colorful cover was a photograph of stamps from all around the world. For a few years, all my stamps fit in it. But my collection kept growing, and when my dad realized I was going to stick with stamp collecting, he presented me with a pre-printed "Abria" album for Scandinavia for Christmas. I was maybe ten. The following year, I received a matching album for France-- which I still have.

This was 1971.

Needless to say, my collections have grown and morphed-- more or less continuously-- since then.

If you are a lifelong collector, perhaps it is just part of the journey that your interests become more and more specialized as you go along. For me, specialization was part choice, part necessity: I reached a point where "filling the next empty space" would cost me more money than I had available to spend on stamp collecting. So I went from "collecting one of each" to looking at "more than one" through plate flaws, printings and postmarks. This happened-- gradually-- in my mid-20s.

Of course, traditional pre-printed albums do not lend themselves to specialized collections. For a long time, I have kept my Denmark specialized in stockbooks. This served as an adequate-- but far from perfect-- solution, for many years. The upside of this approach is that it's easy to move stamps around, as you get new additions. But the main issue I have always had with this approach is that my "primary" examples of each stamp (and blocks and covers) have been in my pre-printed album, while my varieties and postmarks were separate in the stockbooks.

So, a few years ago, I decided I wanted to create my own albums for my Denmark collection.

One of the first new pages, allows for multiples, cancels and more

After looking at my options, I decided to use "Lighthouse" multi-ring binders and quadrilled blank pages. To show the stamps off as much as possible, everything would be mounted in black mounts.

As I said, that was a few years ago...

I soon realized that "layout" is not as easy as it looks. Strike that... I realized that organizing a highly specialized collection requires a lot of planning and foresight, in order to avoid ending up with a giant uncohesive mess.

So, whereas I've actually had the binders and pages for six years... I have mainly been "studying" how I have organized and moved the stamps in my stockbooks. The lesson here, is patience. I don't want to have to significant undo and change anything, once I get going.

I am keeping it very simple. For a while, I considered printing pages with my laser printer, but decided against it-- the almost infinite potential for expansion of a collection that includes minor varieties and cancels would make this an almost impossible task. Instead, I am just using the plain pages with the black mounts... and annotating everything in pencil-- thankfully I have fairly neat handwriting... well... printing. Why pencil? Well, if I do have to move a few items around, it allows me to erase and rewrite descriptions.

Individual captions done in pencil

This will be my primary stamp project for 2012... and beyond. As I assemble the collection, I will also be "putting my money where my mouth is," with respect to documenting the collection (See December 14th post), both for my own benefit... and for the benefit of anyone who might have to "deal with" the collection sometime in the future.

There is, of course, no "right" or "wrong" way to house a specialized stamp collection. My primary objective was to come up with something that works for me. Specifically, I wanted to end my previous problems of not being able to find specific items, because they could be located in an assortment of different books, boxes and albums.

Since I am not an "exhibitor," that was never part of my considerations, although I did want to come up with something fairly "presentable," for when I share with other collectors.

My advice to anyone who wants to create albums for their specialized collection is primarily to plan well. Spend some time looking at how you want to organize, then consider where you will (most likely) be adding more stamps... and where the collection is "finite." This will have a major impact on how you design your pages.

Happy New Year to everyone!