Valuable books

Businesses have to get their books reviewed at least annually. In the fall of 1968 the Stockholm based cooperative the Milk Central  (Mjölkcentralen) had their books reviewed by a chartered account in Gothenburg (Göteborg). The Milk Central was a cooperative owned by Swedish farmers, its successor Arla still exists and the Arla brand can now be found in quite many countries outside Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

The chartered account Mr. Ruhne was employed at a subsidiary to the Federation of Swedish Farmers (Lantmännens Riksförbund - LRF) and was responsible for the review. It seems like he was done with his work on Monday 21 October because then he sent back the books to Stockholm. Better safe than sorry he insured the package for a whooping 25,000 kr, close to $5,000 USD in those days.

Domestic parcel   - 3 kg, fee: 3.70 kr; insured for 25,000 kr, fee: 3.90 kr
1961, 7 June. 10 öre ultramarine-blue New Numeral Type, type II. Qty: unknown.
1961, 28 August. 2.50 kr light green Three Crowns. Qty: 19,600,000.
1958, 17 September. 5 kr the Royal Palace, Stockholm II. Qty: 16,500,000.

The red label marked with a capital V for value marks that the item is insured. In 1968 the fee for insurance was 1.40 kr + 0.10 kr per 1.000 kr insured. It took only one day to get the parcel to Stockholm and two days later the parcel was picked up by the General Manager Mr. Pehrsson.

The stamp at the left is the 10 öre in the low denomination series New Numeral Type, the two others are typical parcel stamps: the 2.50 from the Three Crowns series and the 5 kr Royal Palace. Originally the 2.50 kr was used to cover the fee for parcels weighing between 3 and 5 kg from 1961 to until July 1964 when it instead covered the weight class 1 - 3 kg until July 1965.

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.