| Group soc.culture.nordic
article 869
From: [email protected] (Anders Andersson)
Organization: Uppsala University, Sweden
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[Material on subject matter other than stamps removed.]
Those of you collecting Swedish stamps may have noticed that a lot of
them are pretty well engraved. One skilled and well-known engraver is
Szesclaw Slania (I'm of course very uncertain about the spelling), of
Polish origin.
He works for the Swedish Postal Administration, as well as maybe a
couple of similar bodies in other countries. On Swedish stamps, you'll
find the engraver's name at bottom right (the name to the left is the
artist or the photographer of the original motif). Mr Slania is usually
assigned all the royal motifs.
Sz. Slania told about his years in Poland: He sometimes painted images
of stamps directly on the envelopes of letters he sent, and they were
accurate enough to pass unnoticed as valid postage. He once painted an
image of a U.S. dollar bill, and it came under the eyes of the Polish
police, who visited him, not believing he had got hold of it in any
legal way until he started to paint another one before their eyes...
If I remember correctly, recent Newsweek issues have contained ads
featuring images of stamps, a lot of them Swedish, in case anyone would
like to have a look.
If you look in the Guinness' Book of Records for the world's biggest
coin, you'll probably find a note on the old Swedish coppers, the size
of baking- trays -- the idea was of course that they should contain
real metal to the coin value! I believe they were circulated in the
17th century.
--
Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University
Paper Mail: P.O. Box 520, S-751 20 UPPSALA, Sweden
Phone: +46 18 183170 EMail: [email protected]
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| From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: What we have in common
Date: 1 Apr 91 16:44:33 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: Hughes Aircraft Company, Group Systems Group, Fullerton, Ca.
One other thing which the Nordic countries have in common are their
stamps. There has been some discussion about the Faroes and Aaland,
lately. Each of these "self-governing" areas issues their own postage
stamps which are valid for international mail. Greenland also, of
course. The Faroes stamps are the only ones available in the Faroe
Islands. In Aaland, both Finnish and Aaland stamps are available and
equally valid for use, altho the Aaland stamps are not valid on mail
posted in mainland Finland.
The Universal Postal Union, which rules on such things, granted both of
these island groups this right a few years ago. Faroes were first,
then Aaland. Greenland has had its own stamps since 1938 or so, its
"Home Rule" status came into being only in recent years.
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From: [email protected] (Jakob Nielsen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Stamps (was: What we have in common)
Date: 2 Apr 91 23:25:19 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Poster of News)
Organization: Bellcore (Bell Communications Research)
Re. Greenland and Faeroe Island stamps:
Because these islands are also part of Denmark at the same time as they
have home rule and special stamps, their stamps are sold at the post
office in the international departure hall at Copenhagen Airport.
Greenland and Faeroe Island stamps are a good souvenir and are mostly
better-looking than Danish stamps.
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