Two seven kg

Parcel address card variations

This post is about two 7 kilo domestic parcels. The first one was sent on Thursday 11 April 1968. It was solely a local matter. The parcel was handed over to the Post Office Stockholm 16 at 3 Ore Square Street (Malmtorgsgatan 3) in the city centre of Stockholm the part that is called Norrmalm and it arrived two days later at the Post Office Stockholm 19 on 54 Döbeln's Street (Döbelnsgatan 54) in the north part of town. Where a representative from the firm Piping Inc (Rörlednings AB) paid 60 kr (since it was a C.O.D.) and picked it up on the following Wednesday. The parcel contained printed matter in the form of drawing pads, 7 kg of paper. Pretty heavy.

Domestic address parcel  - 7 kg, Collect On Delivery; fees: 7,00 kr + 0,70 kr, total 7.70 kr
1964, 25 June. 40 öre blue Gustaf VI Adolf type III. Qty: 94,200,000 (3-sided perforation).
1967, 12 January. 1.80 kr dark blue Three Crowns. Qty: 7,600,000
1967, 15 February.3,70 kr  violet The Lion Fortress. Qty: 16,000,000

It seems odd that the 40 öre blue Gustaf VI Adolf  is the 3-sided perforated version not the 2-sided one, but at this time the 40 öre was a left over. It used to be the rate for domestic letter  - 20 g until July 1967, but now it is 1968. The 40 öre stamp was taken from the 165th booklet issued by Swedish Post. The 1,80 kr dark blue Three Crowns was not originally aimed for parcels. Its single use was for domestic letter  - 500 g until March 1969. But the 3,70 kr violet The Lion Fortress on the other hand was made for parcels 1 - 3 kg, that lasted until January 1969.

From here to there . . .                                                                                                                    
Top: the Post Office Stockholm 16 used to be here.                                                                    
Bottom: the plumber firm Piping Inc. used to be here and most likely the basement door to
the left was the entrance. Note that the name of the street is misspelled on the address card,
should be Rehnsgatan.

The next parcel was an ordinary domestic parcel sent from the town Söderköping about 180 km south of Stockholm to the Post Office Stockholm 1. The sender was the company Fix Tricot Factories Inc. (Fix trikåfabriker AB), still in business. The parcel was picked up by Holgersson's Men's Clothing - that store is long gone, but it was situated across the Stockholm Central Station, just two blocks away from Stockholm 1. What about the content? Tricot of course, 7 kg of nice gentlemen's tricot one can assume.

Domestic Parcel  - 7 kg, fee: 7,00 kr
1967, 16 June. 45 öre ultramarine Gustaf VI Adolf type III. Qty: 364,000,000
1967, 12 January. 2,80 kr red Three Crowns. Qty: 15,000,000.
1961, 7 June. 5 öre red New Numeral Type type II. Qty: 205,000,000
1967, 15 February. The Lion Fortress. Qty: 16,000,000

The 45 öre ultramarine Gustaf VI Adolf single use was domestic letter  - 20 g and probably the most common stamp of the time. The 2,80 kr red Three Crowns was as The Lion Fortress intended for domestic parcels, but for the lighter ones weighing up to 1 kg. The 2,80 kr red was issued at the same day as the 1,80 kr dark blue on the first address card above. That day (12/01/1967) also a lighter blue 1,85 kr was issued in the Three Crowns series. You can read about the Three Crowns series - here. The 5 öre red New Numeral Type stamp on the card had been around since 1961 and was of course a complementary denomination. It is a type II since its colour is bright red, not red carmine as type I.

Here is where the parcel was picked up on Friday 15 November 1968.This corner at the back of the block that was the head quarters of Swedish Post and the Post Office Stockholm 1 was where the entrance for the special office for parcels was located. Today the building is used by the Swedish Government.

To sum up, two of the stamps on the cards above were aimed for domestic parcels, the 2,80 kr red Three Crowns [ - 1 kg] and  the 3,70 kr  violet The Lion Fortress [1 - 3 kg]. The Three Crowns representing the old kind of stamp issuing policy, long series with the same motif but different denominations. Where The Lion Fortress was one of the new more contemporary designed stamps that came in the late sixties, with different motifs and just one stamp.


Postal rates domestic parcels for 1968:

- 1 kg	1 - 3 kg	3 - 5 kg	5 - 7 kg	7 - 10 kg
[2.80 kr]	[3.70 kr]	4.50 kr	[7.00 kr]	10.50 kr

Material for clocks and watches

Yet another parcel address card. This parcel contained metal, what kind of metal one might wonder? One clue is that the parcel was addressed to the horologist Mr. S. Ljungberg living in Dannemora a small mining community 45 km north east of Uppsala. Three kilos of metal - must have been a lot of of clocks and watches made out of that. The parcel was sent on Wednesday 4 July 1962. It reached the Post Office Dannemora the next day and the parcel card got into the hands of Mr. Ljungberg the same day since he signed it then, but it took him an additional eight days before he picked up the parcel. He was not in a hurry.

Domestic parcel 1 - 3 kg fee: 2.00 kr + Cash on Delivery fee: 45 öre
1952, 1 July. 2 kr red-violet Three Crowns. Qty: 84,800,000
1957, 1 June. 10 öre blue New Numeral Type, type II. Qty: 239,000,000
1957, 15 October. 25 öre brown Gustaf VI Adolf, type II, Qty: 77,800,000

The postal rate for domestic parcels had been changed four days earlier but only two of the highest weight classes were affected. The C.O.D fee was however raised, from 40 öre to 45 öre.

A some what puzzling thing is that the older 25 öre brown Gustaf VI Adolf from 1957 was used instead of the newer 25 öre  Gustaf VI Adolf type III from October 1961. Maybe Uppsala 1 still had some stock of the older one?

The new domestic parcel rates effective 1 July 1962:   (öre)

- 1 kg	1 - 3 kg	3 - 5 kg	5 - 7 kg	-10 kg	-15 kg	-20 kg
170	[200]	250	450	600	900*	1200*

*only these weight classes were affected by the raise

Address known

Another parcel card, this time it is a cash on delivery. A whooping 6 kilos of books. It was sent on Tuesday September 16 from the Post Office Stockholm 3 at 31 Svea Road (Sveavägen 31) to Mrs. Magnhild Grahn living somewhere in Karlstad. The sum of the denominations are 3 kr 90 öre. The postal rate for parcel weighing 5 - 7 kg was 3.50 kr in 1958 and the C.O.D. fee was 40 öre when the amount was paid directly to the an account at the Swedish Post called the Postgiro. The Postgiro was the Swedish Post's own money transaction system,

Domestic parcel 5 - 7 kg fee: 3.50 kr + Cash on Delivery fee 40 öre
1954, 10 December, 2 kr 10 öre blue Three Crowns. Qty: 15,600,000
1951, 1 June.  kr 70 öre red Three Crowns. Qty: 56,300,000
1957, 1 June. 10 öre blue New Numeral Type, type II. Qty: 239,000,000

The red 1.70 kr Three Crowns was a workhorse among the three lowest weight classes for domestic parcels from its first appearance in June 1951 to June 1964. Another workhorse was of course the ultramarine-blue 10 öre New Numeral Type, type II. The ultramarine-blue 10 öre was issued in coils and in various slot machine booklets, often as se-tenant pairs, between 1957 and 1966. The 2.10 kr Three Crowns is actually of the same blue nuance as the ultramarine-blue 10 öre. It was also the same blue nuance as the blue 30 öre Gustaf VI Adolf type II, the most common denomination in 1958 since it covered the postal rate for domestic letter first class (- 20 g). The single uses for the blue 2.10 kr Three Crown in 1958 was domestic C.O.D. parcel  1 - 3 kg when the amount was paid directly to the Postgiro or fragile domestic parcel  - 1 kg.

The parcel arrived the next day, a Wednesday, at the Post Office Karlstad 1. However the parcel had to be redirected because Mrs. Grahn had moved. First it went to the Post Office Karlstad 4, where they found out that it has to be redirected to another Post Office, the Karlstad 5. Finally on Monday Mrs.Grahn got the books in her possession. Nowadays there are no Post Offices in Sweden anymore All postal services for the public can now be found in corner stores, gas stations and other kind of convenience stores. The service hours are increased, but it was more fun to visit the old kind of Post Offices.

Here is where the Post Office Karlstad 1 used to be. There is still a sign over the door marked "Post Office". . . 

. . . Karlstad 4 used to be in this building . . .

... and finally Karlstad 5 could be find here.

Where is Karlstad situated:
Karlstad is situated 259 km west of Stockholm.
The distance by road is 314 km between the two places.

New and old Cash On Delivery

This post is about two C.O.D. parcel address cards. The first one is of an older version. The parcel was handed over to the Post Office Bromma 19 in Nockeby a suburb of Stockholm on Monday 2 December 1968. The odd thing is that they used a card designed in January 1939 [more precisely form 398 b.] almost thirty years old by that time. Nockeby was built in the 30s and maybe this card was from the original stock from the opening of the Post Office?

Cash On Delivery parcel 2 kg fee: 3.70 kr + C.O.D fee 0.70 kr + unknown fee 1.20 kr
1958, 17 September. 5 kr blue Royal Palace, Stockholm II. Qty: 16,500,000 (2-sided perforation)
1967, 16 October, 30 öre red-orange/blue Outer archipelago of Stockholm. Qty: 184,000,000

The total sum paid was 5.60 kr. The fee for a parcel weighing up to 3 kg was 3.70 kr in 1968 and the C.O.D. fee was 0.70 kr. That makes 4.40 kr but the sum is 1.20 kr more. My guess is that this parcel was bulky since that fee was an extra 50%, which is the missing 1,20 kr. Maybe the bulky lable came off or they just forgot to label. Anyways the stamp 5 kr blue Royal Palace Stockholm II was first issued in 1941 but then printed on panes. The 2-sided perforated version in coils actually on the card arrived not until 1958. The 30 öre red-orange/blue Outer archipelago of Stockholm single use was for printed matter, but it was a new kind of definitive stamps. One can say that it replaced the New Numeral Type series from the fifties when it came in 1967.  The 30 öre stamps belonged to a series called just Definitive Stamps. The denominations of the series were 5 öre, 10 öre, 30 öre and 90 öre. Read more about the Definitive Stamps series - here.

The content of the parcel were boots and they were bound for the shop called The Shoe Company (Skokompaniet) on King's Street (Kungsgatan) downtown Stockholm. The parcel was picked up the next day. We can also note that the sender filled in the correct postal code 111 22. Postal codes were a novelty for 1968 and introduced in May.


The second C.O.D. parcel address cards was sent more than a year earlier, on Wednesday 25 October 1967, but it looks much more modern. The card came in 1964 and was called form 2010.5. In this case the card has to be printed 1965 or later beacuse the card has the new logotype that was introduced the same year. The parcel was sent from the town Linköping to the village Tandsbyn in the province of Jämtland. The weight was 3 kg and the fee was in this case the same as above, 3.70 kr, the C.O.D. fee was 70 öre totaling 4.40 kr. It was sent from Post Office Linköping 1 situated in a magnificent building at 18 - 20 St. Lars Street (S:t Larsgatan 18 -20).

C.O.D. parcel 3 kg fee 3.70 kr + C.O.D. fee 0.70 kr
1967, 15 February, 3.70 kr violet the Lion Fortress. Qty: 16,000,000
1957, 1 June. 70 öre orange Rock Carvings type II. Qty: 10,900,000

In this case it is the 3.70 kr violet the Lion Fortress that is new, issued in February 1967. The 70 öre orange Rock Carvings is a definitive stamp of an older generation where the first stamp in that series was issued in 1954 as a complement to the long running Three Crown series. In the fifties the Rock Carving series felt fresh and it stayed around at least as long as in the beginning of the 70s. On this card both stamps are a nice couple of Swedish definitive stamps.

Here is where the Post Office Bromma 19 used to be. (Google)

. . .  and here is where you could find the Post Office Linköping 1. (Google)

Where are the places?
Nockeby is situated 8 km W of Stockholm
Tandsbyn is situated 446 km NW of Stockholm.
Linköping is situated 174 km SW of Stockholm.

Hardware for hardware store

Pair of Three Crowns

A parcel with spare parts and accessories, at least according to the printed text in the box where the sender declares the content. It seems reasonable, the receiver is the Bergman's Hardware Inc. in Hudiksvall. They had probably good use for spare parts. The parcel was picked up at the Post Office Hudiksvall 1 located at 1 Station Street (Stationsgatan 1) on Wednesday 24 July 1968 and it was sent two days earlier from Post Office Stockholm 23 at 16 Yngliga Saga Street (Ynglingagatan 16), the Ynglinga saga is an old Icelandic traditional folk saga. The weight of the parcel was under 1 kg so there might not have been much metal in that parcel.

Cash on delivery; domestic parcel   - 1 kg fee: 2.80 kr  +  C.O.D. fee: 70 öre
1939, 22 September. 1 kr orange Three Crowns. Qty: 141,000,000
1961, 21 August. 2 kr 50 öre green Three Crowns. Qty: 19,600,000

The weight was under 1 kg and that required 2,80 kr, since the amount of 51.50 kr was paid to the Swedish Post's money transfer system, the Postgiro, the C.O.D fee was then 70 öre and the the total sum of the postal rate became 3.50 kr. Often the customer paid for the postal rates as well and it is probably included in the sum 51.50 kr. The stamps of the Three Crown series was made for this type of postal services and the two denominations 1 kr and 2.50 kr came in very handy in this casew. Easy to sum up. The 1 kr orange had at the time been used for almost 29 years. Quite a long time even for a definitive stamp. However the denomination 1 kr was always easy to use.

This a beautiful pair of Three Crown stamps. Things were changing tough. In February 1968 the 1 kr Dancing Cranes was issued and that stamp would eventually replace the 1 kr orange Three Crowns. It looks like that the Dancing Cranes stamps had not yet reach the Post Office Stockholm 23 in the summer of 1968. The 2.50 kr green was a left over from previous parcel postal rates, in 1961 it covered 3 - 5 kg domestic parcels and after the raise in 1964 it covered 1 - 3 kg parcels. It could be used for other less common rates through out the 60s.

The Swedish Postal History Society (SSPD) has a really good website about single use of the Three Crowns series, among many other things. Check it out - here.


Where are the places:
Hudiksvall is a coastal town situated 272 km N of Stockholm.
The distance by road is 298 km between Stockholm and Hudiksvall.

Domestic C.O.D. parcel address card from 1960

Mrs. Swedmar bought a sweater for Christmas

This parcel containing a sweater was sent from the Post Office Stockholm 3 at Sveavägen 31 (31 Svea Road) to Mrs. Swedmar living at Ejdergatan 31 (31 Eider Street) in nearby Saltsjö-Duvnäs, a suburb south east of Stockholm city centre. The parcel was handover to the postal services the last day of November 1960 and it arrived the next day at the Post Office in Saltsjö-Duvnäs, two days later which was a Saturday Mrs. Swedmar came by and picked it up.

Parcel Address Card C.O.D. Parcel  - 1 kg fee: 1.40 kr + C.O.D. fee: 40 öre
90 öre blue Rock Carvings, issued 8 November 1954. Qty: 43,900,000

The postage rate consist of 1.40 kr for a parcel  - 1 kg and the C.O.D. (Cash On Delivery)  fee 40 öre when the amount is paid directly to the Postgiro, an account at the Swedish Post. The Postgiro was  the Swedish Post's money transaction system, you can read more about Giro transfers here. Two 90 öre blue Rock Carvings covered the totaling postage rate of 1.80 kr. The 90 öre blue was one of the five original stamps of the Rock Carvings issued in 1954. The easiest way of finding that out is that the names of the artist and the engraver is missing at the bottom of the stamp. Read more about the Rock Carving series - here.

We do not know who sent the parcel since that part is missing. Maybe a fancy fashion shop on Sveavägen? Below is a street view from Google showing the building were the Post Office Stockholm 3 used to be. There are no Post Offices left in Sweden for the public anymore. All postal services can be found in corner stores, gas stations and other kind of convenience stores.

Where the Post Office Stockholm 3 used to be. (Google)