Now Starting To Collect Sweden And Norway

I've been collecting Norway and Sweden for about 6 months using Steiner pages and I work off Scott catalogues.

What I've notice the Swedes produce stamp formats much different that other countries.

When l look on line the Sweden sellers most often offer booklet stamps in pairs. Stamp albums and catalogue pricing is for singles.

How significant is it to collect these Swedish in pairs? Do most Swedes actually collect in pairs?

I see this sometimes with Norway stamps but not the extent that Sweden does.

I recently got rid of my Scandinavian stamps, but the Davo Sweden albums I had contained quite a range of spaces for pairs. But the key thing is to collect in a way that interests you, not album manufacturers!

I myself collect both booklet pairs and singles. I make my own hybrid pages to accommodate both.

I collect only through the end of WW2 so the number to collect are more limited, but I do collect the singles and pairs and my Lindner albums have spots for both. So, you can say I'm a slave to Lindner. haha

Of course not. It depends more on whether or not they collect mint or used, and what kind of storage (stock book/pages vs pre-printed album) are they using.

Mint collectors usually try to obtain complete booklets or booklet panes. Used collectors usually go with single specimens, but more advanced collectors hunt down BB/SX-pairs (BB = 3+3 sided pair, SX = pair with two different designs) and booklet panes.

If they use stock books for storage (like most in Scandinavia do), then they start and focus with singles. Pre-printed albums (usually SAFE or Leuchtturm in Sweden) have spaces for pairs and booklets only.

So it's complicated/mixed.

The reason you are seeing more sales ads for pairs and booklet panes/complete booklets comes down to money. Singles are usually worth very little and are sold in bulk (say 1000 different stamps for 20-30$), but pairs and panes easily sell for few bucks a piece.

-k-

The Norway post-horns are fun, although they require a deal of thought and care. Facit is the only reference I use for them, and the scope for collecting them is quite daunting.

If you go down the way of variations, I don't know how this will tie in with album layouts. I don't use album pages (I use Hagner sheets instead).