Page 139 - Gustaf Douglas: Classic Sweden

Epilogue

Speaking about philatelic importance, the collection represents all
three dimensions: depth, width and variations.
Depth in this context is represented by mentioning one of the
most important items in Swedish philately: Sparre’s first proposed
design for the Skilling Banco issue. The unique proposed design
originates from the collection of Wilhelm Roos, late Post‐master‐
General, as certified by his son Governor G.W. Roos. It has
previousely been the property of Fredrik Benzinger and Lawson
Stone, both great collectors of classic Swedish philately.
The variation in depth is exemplified here by the colour experi‐
mentation made on the 20 öre Circle Type (not being a colour
misprint). The blue colour was used in the summer of 1884 when the Swedish
Post had well developed plans to follow the colour coding in accordance with
UPU’s colour recommendations (the blue colour was intended for the single
rate to foreign destinations). The Swedish Post made it clear that these items
were not to be issued on the market by feeding them
into the perforation machine twice, with one incorrect
perforation ‐ more or less penetrating the stamp
design. This colour proof is very important in classic
Swedish philately, but not many know about its
existence.
The width of Gustaf’s interest in particularities is
exemplified here by mentioning that in his collection is
presented probably the best existing example (of the
eight single usages recorded) of the 1 Riksdaler Type I
with un‐retouched crowns. This type exist in such a low
number due to the fact that the Swedish post detected
that the crowns in the center did not appear clear
enough and the unclear appearance was handled by retouching
the crowns. The eight existing usages are all recorded with
MALMÖ circular handstamp. Even though this stamp is very
rare to find, there is still a chance to find one in an auction lot of
stamps.
The first two perforation tools (1855 and 1865) used on Swedish
stamps ended up with very fragile perforations. In parallell
Sweden has a very weak tradition of collecting units, a lot of the
units have been split up into singles. The
unique block of 9 stamps of the 24 öre
Postage Due stamp in red‐violet from
1874 is one important exception.
The 50 öre Type II red Official Stamp
Large Size (perforation 13) is one of the
rarest of all Swedish definitive stamps to
find used at all on cover, known only in
seven discoveries. Gustaf has two of them
in his collection, one of them is the
beautiful single usage from LINKÖPING
5.4.1893. Who would have known about
this rarity without knowing about its
philatelic importance?