Sweden - Postally Used Versus CTO

I recently started working (playing?) with my Sweden collection. I had a pretty good collection of "classic" Sweden stamps but basically nothing after 1940. I purchased a collection containing used stamps up through 1994 and began transferring the "modern" stamps to my albums. I was somewhat disconcerted to discover that the majority of the stamps from the mid 1950's onward appear to be CTO's rather than postally used.

I would much rather collect postally used stamps but the catalogs I have access to (Scott and Facit) don't appear to make any distinction nor do most sellers. Is CTO simply the accepted way to collect stamps from Sweden from the 1950's to the 1990's? If postally used stamps are available are they typically much more expensive?

On a related note, the collection I purchased contained many stamps in the form of CTO booklets. The album I am using (Lighthouse) does not have spaces for the se tenant stamps from booklets for that period but rather it simply has spaces for the individual stamps. The Scott catalog has prices for mint booklet panes but typically not for used booklet panes. Are these considered collectable as CTO booklets or should I just break them up?

Thanks

The complete booklet or pane is always going to be harder to find than the individual stamps - I'd keep them as is. You can always mount them on Lighthouse blank leaves or on stock-pages in a side collection.

That is what I have been doing so far Geoff but my main concern/question is whether they have any value at all other than space fillers since they are CTO's.

Swedish CTO stamps are sold at face, and are not sold off at huge discount off face value as are many others. Therefore, they are the same value of postally used. Why wouldn't used or CTO booklets be collectible? FACIT lists used booklets. If you have a postally used booklet, chances are it's a philatelic usage anyway, plus you may not get the tab to make it a complete booklet pane.

Also, since you have Facit, you are also aware that Swedish requirements for collectible singles is far different from US ones.

Thanks for that information hy-brasil. So these stamps would be considered favor cancels rather than CTO's (if that makes any difference)? Regarding Facit, I haven't been able to find any information regarding CTO/favor cancels in my copy (1991). I have a 2020 copy of the Facit Classic Special catalog on order but of course that won't include any information about the post 1950 stamps.

Is there something I have missed in my Facit regarding the Swedish requirements for collectible singles? Most of the introduction in my copy is only in Swedish, not English. Are you referring to the various combinations of perforation resulting from the booklet layouts? Cut on right, cut on left, corner cuts, etc.?

I am trying to collect coil singles, booklet pairs (all types) and se tenant blocks where appropriate. And now I guess used booklets.

CTO is essentially equal to favor cancelled; the stamps did not do postal duty. The large reduction in price for (say) older Eastern European and French Community CTO stamps is because they are sold at large discount.

The diagram must not be in Facit anymore, but Swedes collect upright SOTN used stamps. This is presented as the highest grade but is often regarded by them as the the only way to collect used singles. Booklet pairs and panes are likely another story.

Thanks again hy-brasil. Yes, postally used stamps with clear SOTN cancellations is what I would prefer as well. I'll just have to keep looking.

I too always prefer clear postal cancels to the neat favor cancels sold by the post office, but many collectors in Europe have the opposite preference. Market values for postally used (with a clean CDS cancel) and favor-cancelled are going to run about the same.

As hy-brasil notes, almost all used complete booklet panes or large setenant multiples are going to be the favor-cancelled variety. I'm OK with postally used singles and a CTO booklet pane for my own collection.

It extends beyond modern Scandanavia; Australia, interestingly, also has the modern CTOs, and for many commemorative stamps (especially the water-activated gum sheet varieties) CTO is by far more common than postally used examples.

CTO stamps are most recognizable by the fact that they still have the gum on the back of the stamp while genuinely postally used stamps won't. For me, that's been the main difference.

Since CTO's generally get cancelled four stamps at a time, the other identifying characteristic of CTO stamps is their perfect one-quarter cancel in the corner of the stamp. Finding a genuinely-used stamp with a nice corner cancel is rewarding and not so easy. Most used stamps are badly cancelled with too much ink, are smudged, or pen cancelled. So finding a cancellation on a used stamp that is similar to the neatness and location of a CTO stamp is hard to do. A bit ironic since those who collect used want their used stamps to look as good as CTO's but not be CTO's. This is probably one important attraction of CTO stamps.

But for me, a "used" stamp that's never done its postal duty but is cancelled anyway makes it look artificial, fake, and a little too close for comfort to the cleaned-up used stamps or faked cancels, and such other things. I want mint stamps to be mint and used stamps to be genuinely used.

You'd think the flood of cheap CTO's from all the usual suspects would cheapen their appeal. In some countries, apparently not, though. All I can say is "Go figure" and "To each their own." But I'm not ever going to like CTO's if I can find a nice-looking used stamp.

Common sense tells you that for many modern stamps, finding a good postally used stamp is often going to be harder than finding a mint stamp. Modern mint stamps can be had all day long from the postal service which sells them as well as from dealers in that country's stamps. Used stamps aren't sold by postal administrations, usually, so must be found elsewhere in mission mixtures (or whatever they're called now) or from dealers who specialize in that country's stamps. Putting together a collection of genuinely used stamps from Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, China, etc. that look good could prove to be a lot harder than a collection of mint stamps.

By the way, a "favor cancel" is generally a hand-back cancel, given back to the collector who asked for the cancel without ever being mailed. But if the collector asked for a philatelic hand cancel neatly done and then put the envelope into the mail slot to be mailed to him . . . well, that's clearly postally used and to me, that's preferable.At the same time, anyone who wants to make the extra effort could 'soak' their CTO's to remove the gum and end up with some nice-looking "apparently" used stamps . . . maybe.

Possibly, but I seem to recall that, in mainland Europe, there can be a preference for keeping the CTO with full gum. And for having pairs with an unmounted mint stamp and her cancelled-by-favour sister.

GeoffHa, I've seen both in a number of collections in (obviously) hingeless albums. Chacun à son goût.