Questions About Norwegian Stamps

I know Google searching does not necessarily yield the answers to everything, but I would have thought that Google would at least have been able to tell me where this place called Todd in Norway is located.

I don't think I'm reading the name wrongly on this 1938 stamp - it seems entirely legible.

So who knows where 'Todd' is or (if it's changed its name) what it's called today?

There is a town called Notodden...

Balf

MmmmBalf knows every town in world!

We have amazing people in this forum.

My first guess would be Notodden as well. "Todd" didn't show up in a quick search in a database over Norwegian post offices.

Here is the database, if anybody are interested:
http://www.maihaugen.no/no/Postmuse...dsdatabasen/

It is in Norwegian though, but I guess Google Translate or something like that should be of help.

MmmmBalf, that's brilliant. I could see that there were possibly two letters in front of the TODD, but discarded that the idea that they were part of the place name because then the name wouldn't have been symmetrical. I never though of the possibility that letters at the end of the name would be completely missing. But it's the only possibility. THANK YOU!

Notodden also turns out to be a reasonably interesting place:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notodden

While on things Norwegian, what are these Bureau cancels about?

The cancels on this pair are not that legible, but I've seen a few listed on ebay that can be read easily enough.

This one seems to read 'BUREAU NEEXP'

Does anyone know what kind of cancel these are?

It seems the Bureau Neexp was a "travelling postmark" (not sure of the correct term in English, so its just a rough translation from Norwegian). Bureau Neexp was, as far as I can tell, used on a train.

Those look to be Type 4 traveling post office cancels. There are eight major types, according to Norwegian Travelling Post Offices by Arthur Chambers.

Also, see if you think it might be "R"EEXP, instead of N. I agree it looks a bit like an "N" but I suspect it is an "R."

Thanks for the information, guys!

@cjd, it does indeed look like an N but you're right, it must be an R.

Another question: I've measured the frames of two of my posthorns only to find that they were both 20.5 mm.

Does this make them 20 mm or 21 mm posthorns???

Facit uses those same measurements. I won't swear that there isn't a reference to 20.5mm, but in ten minutes of flipping through posthorns (and still only feeling like I skimmed it), I didn't see anything.

The level of detail in the listings is amazing. With dots here, spots there, plate cracks everywhere, it seems that other features rather than height might be used to i.d., which would let you reverse engineer the "large die" or "small die."

Daunting stuff.

Cjd, it seems to be a very daunting field indeed.

I'm trying to identify just a few stamps without benefit of a catalogue, because my real area of specialisation is Germany. I just thought I'd sell some of the Norwegian ones with nicer cancels. However, after hours of online research I'm still not sure what two of them are. The first is the pair with the Bureau cds shown above.

The other is this one:



I'd really appreciate it if someone would have a go at identifying them for me. Both the pair and the single are unshaded posthorns with 20 mm. frames.

I'm particularly anxious to identify the single, because apparently examples of this stamp go for quite a lot of money when they have dated cancels.

However, it's possible it also depends on the shade. There seems to be a considerable variety of shades, especially with the 10 ore reds.

Norwegian Posthorns are tricky, and "DAUNTING"?
I picked them to collect because I thought they would be easy.

Geee--Whiz
Back to base one again.

Butterflies are starting to look better each day.

A tricky field indeed. Have you tried this link? http://www.frimerkehuset.no/fh/post...posthorn.htm

Its a step by step guide to identify the different posthorns. It is in Norwegian though, but Google Translate or something similar might do the trick. Never tried it myself, prefer to use the guide in Norgeskatalogen.

Some of the spotting features in Facit are right around the areas obscured by the cancel on the single. I'm not comfortable taking a guess.

The listing for the 10o is only a couple column inches, but then it relies heavily on drawings on two other pages...it is a little more borrowing than I feel comfortable scanning and posting.

Bureau Reexp. is French "bureau réexpéditeur" and translates to "forwarding office". According to Norgeskatalogen Postal III, the Bureau Reexp. was located in Christiania (Oslo). French terms were commonly used as this was the language of the UPU. We still use Par Avion for "Air Mail" today. Similarly there is a Norwegian postmark Bureau D'Echange (Exchange Office), as well as Bureau Amb. and Bureau De Mer (Ship Mail). I cannot say if any of these would be used on railways.