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Sweden

Sunday, July 1, 1855

Europe 12

Swe1
Swe2
  Sweden #1 #2  

Perforated 14, no watermark, typography.

Description # printed # issued # sold Scott # SG † Mi Y&T
3 skilling banco blue green
 ? 40,000 ? 1 1    
4 skilling banco light blue
 6,984,900 6,736,650 6,579,780 2 2    
6 skilling banco gray
 ? ? ? 3 3    
8 skilling banco orange
 ? ? ? 4 4    
24 skilling banco dull red
 ? ? ? 5 5    

† The initial Scott [1] listing covers only the 1855 issues but Gibbons [2] extends this to the period 1855-58, resulting in numerous colour variants not shown above.

All issue quantities are approximate.

SweYell

The early printings of the 4 skilling are on thin paper, the later printings are on medium thickness paper. 8 plates were used for the 4 skilling printings, delivered on 16 different dates, the earliest being June 12, 1855.

The 3 skilling banco exist as a unique yellow error. According to Mackay [3], it was found in 1855 by a schoolboy, George Wilhelm Backman and sold to a local stamp dealer for 7 kronor; sold in 1937 to King Carol of Romania for £5,000 (then $10,200); and was "thought to have been sold in 1950 for $55,080". Wikipedia [4] takes up the story: it sold for 977,500 Swiss Francs in 1984, for more than $1M in 1990 and for 2,880,000 SFr in 1996. It was sold again for "at least the 1996 price" in 2010 and again in 2013 by private sale to Count Gustaf Douglas, a Swedish nobleman and politician.

Sources: ScS [1], SGP11 [2], JM1 [3], Wikipedia [4].

Images from Colnect.

FI ref: 56 Page credit: JA/NB

Page created 19 Feb 2014 Page updated 25 Jun 2016