Sweden Booklets: Cancelled But Still Intact.were These Used To Pay Business Reply Or Similar?

I acquired a couple of Sweden booklets a year or two ago. All three contain stamps, and I believe all are complete, even though the bottom stamps are perforated like more stamps were attached (the stamp count is as might be expected in a booklet). Scott states that booklet panes contain the number of stamps present in my booklets.

Two of the booklets are cancelled. Both were used at the same location, but not on the same date. Stamps are still attached and gum intact.

I remember many years ago seeing United States booklets in this same condition being offered on ebay by the pound. I assume that the US stamps were used to pay for "business reply mail postage due, like the old "Postage Due Bill" documents the Post Office had were used, where they'd apply the dues to the sheet and cancel to pay BRM postage. I suspect that the US booklets were a way for a collector to get something useful for all the BRM mail he was paying for. I didn't buy any of those booklets, but I was interested in the idea of it. I envision that same scheme for commemorative sheets, even Priority Mail or Express Mail sheets and hi-val definitives. THOSE would be cool to have!

I wonder if my booklets were used in the same way. In the US, I can't think of anything besides actual postage (forward or delivery end-due) stamps would be accepted as payment for. I don't know if Sweden even has BRM, or if stamps can be used to pay for other postal services. Regardless, the booklets make an interesting addition to my Sweden collection. Not sure how to display/albumize them complete with covers, however :-}

I'm wondering, do you know what this is all about? Have you seen this before? I'm pretty sure it's not cancelled-to-order, as the 727-730 stamps are from '67 and the 699 is from '66 yet the cancellations are 2004 and 2003 respectively. I wonder what the usage was.

All I know is that canceled (non-first days) Sweden booklets are common, pretty much every dealer in Swedish stamps has a few to sell.
There might be the odd reason but my guess is "I want to collect canceled booklet panes" is certainly one of them.

Interesting observation :-} I wonder what the deal is there!

I don't think ppl would just cancel an entire booklet without getting their value out of it. I mean, I can't imagine it being useful if one paid the price for the booklet and then rendered it useless without some benefit accruing to them. And CTO doesn't make sense with 37 years passing...

Wait--37 years on both. Is that some magic number that makes this possible??!!

Did they exchange for modern stamps and get to keep the cancelled old stamps??!!

Hmmm....

Don't overthink this. People do not buy stamp books to pay for something 37 years later.

My thinking exactly. That's why I wonder what was going on here :-}

I'm wondering if someone didn't buy "discount postage" to pay for ***something*** around the turn of the century. But I'm trying to retrace the user's steps here: What was going on?

I mean, if I never know for sure, that's okay. But I'm wondering what went on. Kind of a nice little "postal history" excursion here :-}

Josh

Back in the 1940ies and 1950ies it was possible to pay Business reply mail, postage due and returned parcels by using stamps. But 2003 and 2004 the companies got invoices they had to pay by transfer to an account. So I think that there are one of the two following reasons. 1. Someone who collects postmarks wanted prints of the Halmstad cancel. These booklets were cheap so no major value was lost. 2. A dealer wanted to offer both mint and used stamps and was out of stock of the cancelled ones, so he cancelled some of the mint. It can also be a collector who wanted to have cancel booklets

Isn't favor cancelled an option?
I myself have gotten parcels from stamp dealers where they had mint blocks of US stamps cancelled and placed in a clear pouch on the front of the package. The result is nicely cancelled (used stamps) with full gum.

To Spain_1850, You are right, that is also an alternative. Perhaps even more probable the the two I suggested.

I ordered a catalogue + stamps from Sweden several years ago and all the postage was paid in booklet panes. They were all cancelled and added to the package in a clear plastic envelope.

Although mine did not include the booklet covers. I've not seen them with covers as in the photo.

Hey, the idea of special philatelic treatment of these stamps even as they're used for postage makes sense.

About 15 years ago, I received a letter from Sweden in a stamp trade, and it arrived here in the US with a light green sticky-note sheet over the stamps. It was printed with something that looked like it said it was for philatelic purposes. The cancelled stamps were under this paper, so I assumed it was there to protect the stamps with the nice CDS cancels from inadvertently getting put into a machine and re-cancelled, possibly ruining the cover.

Perhaps a postal service that's this amenable to collectors might also entertain the use of carefully cancelled booklets stashed into cellophane pouches to pay postage as well.

Excellent thought on this matter--and it's a very plausible explanation for how my "used" booklets came about.

Thanks!!

Josh