| Scandinavia: Tourist Issues: Stamps |
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These stamps were issued in cooperation with the Swedish and other Scandinavian post offices and are valid FROM other countries TO Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Åland. They are listed by the Facit catalog. There were five different stamp issues included in six different issues of booklets.
It all started in 1994 in the Canary Islands, off the coast of Spain. Many Scandinavians vacation in the Canary Islands during the dark Scandinavian winters. Unfortunately, sending an airmail letter from the Canary Islands back to friends in the Scandinavian countries used to take several weeks as it crawled through the Spanish mails. To solve this problem, Sweden Post, through a cooperative arrangement, issued special stamps, initially sold only in the Canary Islands. These stamps had international franking value for post cards (one stamp) and letters (two stamps) to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Åland. The following year, the availability of stamps and service was expanded to other tourist destinations such as Cyprus and Crete. Eventually the stamps came to be used from a number of areas, including Florida! The letters and post cards are posted with the hotels and travel agents and are carried aboard charter airliners to Stockholm where they are placed in the regular mails for delivery within Sweden or to the other countries. |
This mail service ceased in the fall of 1998. The stamps have already become quite hard to find; prices are already rising. However, most collectors are not yet aware of them; as they become more well known, we can expect prices to climb.
To my knowledge, this is a completely new type of stamp: Issued by one country for postage use on letters from a different country, back to the home country (or to a neighboring country). These special-purpose stamps are not local issues because they have international validity and they were authorized by a national postal service. They are stamps. The items below are listed by Facit numbers. |
| The Facit Catalog has already listed these stamps. European catalog and album publishers are likely to eventually include them as well. They are already being included in the Stender Albums. Obtain your stamps now before they are listed in all catalogs; before prices go up further! Though these stamps were printed in Sweden, they are valid for mail to Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Åland as well as Sweden. This means that collectors of all these countries are including them in their collections. You may wish to do so as well. |
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