Adding up to 1.40

Traversing rates

For more then nine years the postal rate for a Swedish domestic parcel weighing less than 1 kg was 1 kr and 40 öre. There was a definitive stamp designated for that rate, of course a stamp from the Three Crown series, the 1.40 kr dark green. The stamp was first issued in April 1948, but back then it covered the rate for parcels weighing 3 to 5 kg and from June 1951 on  parcels 1 - 3 kg. Its carrier as single stamp on parcel address cards ended the last day of June 1961. It had many other single uses from 1948 and well into the late sixties. The excellent website of the Swedish Postal History Society  have researched all kind of single uses of the Three Crowns series and at the moment they have registered 492 single uses for the stamps in the series. The 1.40 kr stamp has 32 single uses identified. Here are some clips from 1959:

Domestic parcel card,  - 1 kg, fee:1.40 kr
1948, 1 April. 1.40 kr dark green Three Crown series. Qty: 72,900,000.

As described above the parcels rates kind of traversed through the weight classes. It was the same with 1.10 kr, 1.70 kr and the 2 kr rates.

Domestic parcel rates: (öre)

	- 1 kg	1 - 3 kg	3 - 5 kg
04-1948	80	110	[140]
06-1951	110	[140]	170
06-1952	[140]	170	200
07-1961	170	200	250

But there was not every Post Office that used a single 1.40 kr stamp, some of them applied more stamps to ad up. Have a look at these clips below, also from 1959:

Domestic parcel card,   - 1 kg, fee: 1.40 kr
1954, 8 November. 60 öre red Rock Carvings type I. Qty: 53,800,000.
1957, 15 October. 20 öre grey Gustaf VI Adolf type II. Qty: 193,000,000. (two-sided perforations)
1957, 15 November. 40 öre green Gustaf VI Adolf type II. Qty: 38,400,000.
1954, 8 November. 50 öre grey Rock carvings type I. Qty: 115,000,000.
1954, 8 November. 20 öre grey Gustaf VI Adolf type II. Qty: 16,800,000 (three-sided perforation, pairs)

In 1957 the Swedish post decided to print the initials of the designer (del. = latin  delineavit) and the engraver (sc. = latin sculpsit) at the bottom of new stamps. The Gustaf VI Adolf stamps has that new kind of information. Check it out. "D T del." stands for David  Tägström and "S E sc." stands for Sven Ewert. The Rock carvings stamps from 1954 do of course not have that information, but the next editions of Rock carving stamps from June 1957 have the del. and sc. printed at the bottom, forming the type II version. Oddly enough the del. and sc. policy was never applied to the Three Crown series.

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.

Stamp on stamps

Receipt

Some postal matters do not give you hardly any additional information. Often there are more question marks than answers. This is one of them, it is a receipt from the Post Office Tyringe in the south of Sweden. This receipt form could be used for several purposes:
    - Stamps
    - Postage due
    - Christmas stamps
    - Stamp taxes, excise duties
    - Custom duties
    - Cash on delivery fee

There are five stamps on the receipt, four green 80 öre Rock Carvings type II issued in 1957. Type II means that the stamps belongs to the second or third issue of the Rock Carvings, the first one came 1954. Type II also meant that the initials of the designer (del. = latin  delineavit) and the engraver (sc. = latin sculpsit) were both added at the bottom of the stamps. A feature introduces by the Swedish Post in 1957. That feature is the easiest way to distinguish between the two types.

A fee of 3.60 kr was probably paid, but for what?
1957, 1 June. 80 öre green Rock Carvings type II. Qty: 57,000,000
1957, 15 October. 40 öre green Gustaf VI Adolf type II. Qty: 38,400,000

The Rock Carvings was an attempt to modernize the Swedish definitive stamps and it mostly complemented the long running Three Crown series that was issued from 1939. The design of the Rock Carvings felt fresh and modern at the time and it connected to Swedish ancient history instead of the usual theme for definitive series like the king or formal Swedish symbols. The motif was modern in a modest way.

The 40 öre green Gustaf VI Adolf type II was aimed to cover the rate for international letters  -20 g. The background of type II consisted of a cross pattern, which resulted in a tighter background pattern and the colours became more noticeable. Compared with type I that had a linear background engraved and that turned out to be to light and the colours were not distinct enough. The type II also got the initials of the designer and the engraver added at the bottom of the stamp.

A 40 öre green Gustaf VI Adolf type II was applied, this is an old stamp since the receipt is from September 3 1962. Why use an old stamp? The successor 40 öre green type II was issued already in October 23 1961 and should by September 1962 be already in use at the Post Office Tyringe. That is puzzling. It does not stop there.

The sum of the stamps are 3.60 kr but we do not know what was bought. Stamps? The receipt is not filled in correctly. There is no signature by the Post Office clerk, it is not specified what kind of purchase that have been done. Maybe they were a little careless that day in Tyringe and just hand over the receipt in a hurry?

Or maybe the purchase did not happen? Something went wrong . . .


Tyringe is situated 442 km SW of Stockholm. The distance by road is 532 km.

A parcel that never was

Bank notes for the country side

This domestic parcel was not sent . . .
On Tuesday 9 October 1962 a parcel with bank notes was meant to be sent and for that purpose the parcel was handed over to the Post Office Uppsala 1 at 3 Railroad Yard Street (Bangårdsgatan 3). It was the Swedish Bank of Commerce (Svenska Handelsbanken) that wanted to distribute some bank notes from its head office in Uppsala located at the Big Square (Stora Torget) downtown Uppsala to Österbybruk, a distance of 40 km. The weight of the bank notes was not more than 2 kg. Two kilos of bank notes sounds like a lot of bank notes. May be not, in the sixties a Swedish bank note weighed about 9 to 11 grams depending on the size and denomination. That would be about 200 bank notes in this parcel, two bundles. The parcel is insured for a 1,000 kr and there might be 200 bank notes in there, may be it was 5 kr bank notes? Most likely.

Domestic parcel 1 - 3 kg fee: 2 kr + insurance 1,000 kr fee: 80 öre
1962, 2 July. 1.05 kr blue-green Three Crowns. Qty: 9,300,000
1957, 1 June. 70 öre orange Rock Carvings type II. Qty: 10,900,000

The parcel address card has a pink insurance label marked with the letter "V" as in V for Value. Two 1.05 kr blue-green Three Crowns and one 70 öre orange Rock Carvings were required for the postal rate that summed up to 2.80 kr. The insurance fee was since June 1962 70 öre + 10 öre for every 1,000 kr. This is a nice set of definitive stamps and shows well how the Rock Carving series with its lower denominations complimented the Three crown series. The 1.05 kr Three Crowns stamp was pretty new, issued as late as in July 1962. Its single use was domestic letter  - 500 g. The 70 öre Rock Carvings could be used as a single stamp for domestic letter  - 125 g. The stamps have cancellation stamps and it seems that the parcel is ready to go, but it did not.

Why was it not sent? We do not know. Maybe the bank just changed there mind, or maybe it was meant to be sent to Östhammar instead, Österbybruk and Östhammar tends to get mixed up sometimes. Östhammar is also close to Uppsala (60 km).

Here is were the head office for Svenska Handelsbanken used to be in Uppsala. (Google Street)

The parcel was meant to be sent to this bank office. Still in business. (Google Street)

Where are the places:
Uppsala is situated 63 km NW of Stockholm.
Österbybruk is situated 97 km N of Stockholm.
The distance by road is only 45 km between the two places.

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)