From August 1924 through 30 November 1938, "Tollur" cancellations were used to cancel postage stamps that were used to pay customs / import duties / taxes. Because the duty amounts collected were often large, Tollur cancellations are more common on high denomination stamps than low denomination stamps. Due to patterns of use and issue dates of the stamps, many stamps are significantly scarcer with Tollur cancels than with postal cancels.
Well-struck, well-centered Tollur cancellations are unusual, and especially on well-centered stamps -- such items command significant premiums even on otherwise common stamps. Tollur-canceled blocks of some stamp issues range from scarce to rare, especially in undamaged condition.
This is just a sampling of unusual and high-quality items from my stock. Want lists are welcome for all stamps that exist with Tollur cancellations.
The cancellation devices were issued to all post offices and customs collecting stations located in port towns. As there were more than 50 devices in use, there are some type differences and at least two typefaces are recorded, however these various differences are usually difficult to discern on canceled stamps. Stamps issued after 30 November 1938 that bear Tollur cancels are "after canceled" and are not genuine usages.
Certain stamp issues were specifically not allowed to be used to pay customs duties, thus these are extremely scarce with Tollur cancels: 1930 Parliament and 1934 Airmails were excluded, but apparently after some had been used. Documentation has not been found that the other airmail stamps or the semi-postal stamps were disallowed, however, their extreme scarcity suggests that they were not permitted. The literature does not address the use of Official stamps, however, their extreme scarcity with Tollur cancels suggest that use was at least not regular. Before the introduction of the Tollur cancellation devices, such usages were canceled with sewing machines, punches, handwriten dates and lines, etc. -- such items are scarce.
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US$
235078
Tollur FULL DOCUMENT: 142 in two 5-strips and a pair Fine, plus 196 VF single. One 142 with 1937 postal cancellation. On back of complete import invoice, showing the normal practice that several stamp will have a Tollur cancellation and one stamp always has a dated postal cancellation. This also shows why low-denomination stamps tend to be very scarce with Tollur cancellations, of the 13 stamps (120.05 kronur) only one stamp is low-denomination. Such documents are RARE as those that survived initially were then usually destroyed by collectors to obtain the postal-canceled stamp. Even though the individual Tollur-canceled and postal-canceled stamps on this piece total around $160, on the piece they have MUCH greater value. The document had been folded in its earlier life and most recently, for exhibition, a fold at the bottom third was used to nicely show all the essential features -- not all documents are so easily exhibitable as this example. I have only been able to previously offer such full documents one or two times in the last 38 years!
ACTUAL item.
Reference
For reference only. NOT for sale.
235076
Tollur Piece of Document: 142 Fine 3-strip and 186 VF pair with Tollur cancellations; 174 F-VF with postal cancellation (date unclear). On back of piece of import invoice, showing the normal practice that several stamp will have a Tollur cancellation and one stamp always has a dated postal cancellation. Such pieces are extremely scarce as they were usually destroyed to obtain the postal-canceled stamp. Even though the individual Tollur-canceled stamps on this piece total only around $50, on the piece they have much greater value. I have only been able to offer such pieces four or five times in the last 38 years! Website image shows the "raw" item and how it had been (and still is) mounted for exhibition, making it look nicer.
ACTUAL item.
Reference
For reference only. NOT for sale.
235077
Tollur Piece of Document: 142 Fine thin and 186 F-VF 3-strip with Tollur cancellations; the last 186 with 1937 postal cancellation. On back of piece of import invoice, showing the normal practice that several stamp will have a Tollur cancellation and one stamp always has a dated postal cancellation. Such pieces are extremely scarce as they were usually destroyed to obtain the postal-canceled stamp. Even though the individual Tollur-canceled and postal-canceled stamps on this piece total only around $104, on the piece they have much greater value -- this is even more true when the postal-canceled stamp (186) is valuable in its own right. I have only been able to offer such pieces four or five times in the last 38 years! Website image shows the "raw" item and how it had been (and still is) mounted for exhibition, making it look nicer.
ACTUAL item.
Reference
For reference only. NOT for sale.
209871
108 F-VF 4-block with Superb strikes of Tollur cancellations. Small thin and one pp on lower right stamp, but really looks nice!
ACTUAL item.
34.00
234975
108 VF+ pair with Superb Tollur cancellation. Very scarce so nice!
ACTUAL item.
29.00
233709
108 F-VF with Tollur cancellation. Attractive.
ACTUAL item.
12.00
237032
108 F-VF+ with Tollur cancellation.
ACTUAL item.
14.00
237034
109 F-VF+ PAIR with two Superb Tollur cancellation strikes. Left stamp creased, but pair looks terrific.
ACTUAL item.
22.00
233710
109 VF with Tollur cancellation. Very nice.
ACTUAL item.
12.00
237036
109 VF with neat Tollur cancellation. Very attractive.
ACTUAL item.
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US$
237216
123 F-VF with nice Tollur cancellation. Very attractive.
ACTUAL item.
15.00
209899
126 Superb with Tollur cancellation. Scarce so nice.
ACTUAL item.
5.00
237078
126 Superb centered with neat Tollur cancellation. Very attractive.
ACTUAL item.
5.00
237080
126 VF centered with neat Tollur cancellation. Very attractive.
ACTUAL item.
4.00
209873
126, Facit #142v1 variety (white bulge to the right of the "1") Fine 4-block Tollur cancels. The variety on both left-side stamps (an entire 10-stamp column consisted of this variety, however, nice multiple like this is are scarce). Very attractive and unusual!
ACTUAL item.
18.00
234992
126 with Facit variety # 142v1 (white bump on right side of numeral "1"). VF with Tollur cancellation. Attractive.
ACTUAL item.
6.00
237083
127 Superb centered with complete Tollur cancellation. A beauty!
ACTUAL item.
12.00
237084
127 Superb centered with neat Tollur cancellation. Very attractive.
ACTUAL item.
8.00
209903
127 VF with Tollur cancellation. Scarce so nice.
ACTUAL item.
6.00
237086
127 VF neat Tollur cancellation. Very attractive.
ACTUAL item.