Nordic Error Stamps

For more than 15 years I have written a very long series of articles aimed at beginners for the Swedish Philatelic Magazine. It has never been difficult to find suitable topics to write about as we have such a rich and varied hobby.

Recently I worked on an article devoted to different kinds of error stamps which I believe might be of interest to STAMP NEWS readers as well.

Quite a number of mistakes might occur during the production of postage stamps. In the following I just want to discuss errors which are easily spotted even by the ordinary letter writer without any special interest in stamps or stamp collecting.

Errors usually have to do with two-colour printing, overprinting and the perforation process. Watermark errors are. quite common but as they are difficult to see I leave them out for the time being.

In the Nordic area error stamps are far from common. Quality standards at the printing works seem to guarantee that the vast majority of all stamps printed are free from any problems. However, to err is human and mistakes do occur.

In this article I intend to spotlight a number of interesting stamp errors using stamps of Sweden and North Ingermanland as illustrations.

Most readers are probably familiar with Sweden but what on earth is North Ingermanland?

In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution the mainly Finnish-speaking population of Ingermanland on the Isthmus of Karelia opted for independence. The plans had to be abandoned when the area was occupied by Russian forces in late 1917. Finland received a lot of refugees from Ingermanland and many of these refugees wanted to liberate their homeland. In late 1919, a small area surrounding the town of Kirjasalo was occupied by a Corps of Volunteers and a provisional government was established. It is mainly know for having issued two sets of stamps in 1920. The independent state of North Ingermanland (Pohjois Inkeri in Finnish) only lasted for a few months.

The only post office in North Ingermanland was located in Kirjasalo but the mails were mostly handled at Rautu on the Finnish side of the border.

The stamps were printed by the Viborgs Bok – och Stentryckeri AB. Controls at this concern appear to have been rather lax to say the least as numerous (but interesting!) errors have reached the philatelic marketplace.

Probably the most exciting errors occur when stamps are printed in two colours. In the past the sheets needed to go through the press twice to get the two colours printed. Occasionally a sheet was fed into the press upside down for the second printing. What we get is an inverted centre!

This is what happened with the 10-mark denomination of the 1920 North Ingermanland pictorials. The two musicians playing the Kantele are upside down! Only 100 stamps were printed in this way making it North Ingermanland’s most expensive stamp (currently valued at some AU$1 ,500).

There are very few inverted centre stamps in the Nordic area. I can only think of a Danish local post stamp and a number of Swedish proofs.

On June 18-19, 2009 a huge collection of inverted centres was sold at the Spink Shreves Galleries in New York. The collection was the life-long passion of Robert H. Cunliffe and the beautifully produced set of two hardbound catalogues is a must for any serious collector of inverted centres.

Most inverted centre stamps are rare and thus command very high prices. However, as always there are exceptions for collectors of more moderate means. An inverted centre adds a lot of pizzazz to any collection.

Stamps are frequently overprinted for a variety of reasons. In 1889, the Swedish post office decided to surcharge the 12- and 24-öre service stamps with the new denomination of 10 öre following a rate change. There are several interesting overprint varieties including the one illustrated here. The stamp below shows the denomination as 10 ÖKE! It is an interesting variety which at least doubles the value of the stamp. I obtained the two stamps at a local stamp club auction. As the stamps had been hinged interest was not very strong and I don’t believe anyone actually spotted the error.

When North Ingermanland ceased to exist as an independent state some of the remainders of the pictorial set were overprinted Inkerin Hyvaksi which can be translated as For the prosperity of Ingermanland in English. The postage stamps were thus turned into charity labels. Shown nearby is a stamp with the overprint upside down.

Finally we turn to problems involving the perforation of stamps and once again I have selected a stamp from North Ingermanland to illustrate my point.

Swedish and many other collectors consider stamps of identical design and colour but with a different perforation gauge to be a separate stamp issue. The Swedish 19th century ring type stamps exist perforated 14 or 13 and are considered to be two separate issues by Facit and other catalogues. However, the difference in perforation is not obvious to the average person so let’s look at a more striking variety.

Illustrated here is a pair of North Ingermanland pictorial stamps where an entire row of perforations is missing! This certainly is a variety which can be appreciated by the untrained eye. I have several examples of strange or missing perforations on North Ingermanland stamps.

By their very nature error stamps are a lot scarcer than the normal variety. As far as most other consumer products are concerned we look for flawless items. Not so in stamp collecting where an error stamp makes your album page so much more interesting.

The Nordic area has got its share of error stamps with the most famous one being the 1855 Three Skilling Banco Yellow of Sweden. It is currently the most valuable single stamp on pl~net earth and it has been the subject of numerous books and countless articles in the philatelic press.