The first meeting of the year at Kjøbenhavns Philatelist Klub took place on Wednesday 4 January and according to tradition a guest speaker was specially invited for the meeting. This year Claes Arnrup from Postiljonen presented a speech.

The same evening KPK also inaugurated their new study room where the new, hand-made exhibition frames sponsored by Postiljonen are placed.

Read more about the event here!

Postiljonen begins a fantastic but hectic stamp season directly after the holidays and with our new brochure we would like to give you a little taste of the activities and auction sales we are planning for this spring.

We would really like to welcome you as a consignor to these auctions, but it is urgent to start planning. We accept consignments for the spring auction until mid-January and a month later we close for the Jubilee Auction.

Click the image above to view the brochure (in PDF format) or right-click and "save as..." to download the file.

This is a story about a new and amazing find, a story that for millions of philatelists around the world only remains a collector’s dream.

A Scandinavian philatelist manages to buy a large All World collection from a European auction house hoping to find some stamps suitable for his own collection. Back home he places the collection on the dining room table and starts to check the stamps. He soon comes across a stamp that alerts his curiosity, but he also realizes that it could be manipulated or forged. The stamp goes into a pile of stamps he later intends to examine further. An undisturbed hour with stamp collecting does not come often and sure enough he is soon interrupted by everyday life.

The collection remains on the table for a couple of days until his wife gets tired of it and demands its immediate removal. The album and the pile of stamps are quickly placed into a box in a wardrobe and a whole year passes until he remembers the stamp and starts to examine it. You can imagine his surprise but also scepticism when he starts to realize that the stamp might be one of the most famous stamps in Japanese philately and among the rarest issues in the world. After some consideration he sends the stamp to an expert and amazingly it comes back with a certificate that is beyond his greatest expectations.

The stamp is legendary in Japan and called “Tama 6 yo” (yo of egg-brown 6). It is a 6 SEN of the Cherry Blossom issue from 1875 in orange brown colour with syllabic (control number) 15 and before this find only 6 other copies were known. The catalogue value is in Michel a quarter of a million Euros and in the Japanese catalogue even a bit more. The postmark is a negative cross used in Tokyo and the condition is perfect. This particular copy is by some Japanese experts considered the best of the few existing copies, which are all owned by great Japanese collectors and in the coming spring a new owner may crown his collection with this jewel.

The stamp will be for sale at the Postiljonen Jubilee Auction # 200 on the 28th of April 2012 in Malmö, Sweden. The auction is going to be held in connection with the “Malmö 2nd International Philatelic Summit” which is an international seminar dealing with competitive philatelic exhibiting.

As part of Russia, Finland was among the first countries after Great Britain to adopt the system of uniform postage rates. The rate for sending a letter was decided to be 10 kopek per ounce and the solution was pre-printed envelopes in the values of 10 and 20 kopek. They were printed in small numbers and during 1845-58 in 3 issues of which the first with Standing Oval Type.

In 1850 a new stationery issue in three values was produced, it was printed with the Lying Oval Type which was later used for the first issue of postage stamps. However, this stationery is printed with the highest value, 20 kopek in black and this value was not issued as postage stamp. Therefore this stamp imprint only exists on this stationery. It is very attractive and beautifully cancelled with a boxed postmark "Helsinki 1853" on the front as well as on the back. It is one of the most famous items in Finnish philately and only two examples are known. One is on display in the Finnish Postal Museum, the second and the only one in private hands is currently in a safety vault in Malmö.

The stationery was the crown jewel in Christian Sundman’s Finnish postal stationery collection which was twice awarded Large Gold internationally. It has also been an important highlight in several other famous collections of Axel Trap-Holm, Anthon Fabergé, Mattsson and Indrenius.

This fantastic item, among the world’s rarest issues, will be sold at the Postiljonen Jubilee Auction # 200 on 28 April 2012. The auction will be held in connection with the "Malmö 2nd International Philatelic Summit“ and is expected to attract large international attention. Starting price of this unique item will be 70 000 Euro.

The same auction will also offer a copy of the first postal stationery issued already 1845 in Finland. This also has a stamp imprint in the value of 20 kopek, but it is in red and of the Standing Oval Type. It also originates from Christian Sundman’s Large Gold collection and is very rare.

Mr Göran Persson was awarded The Postiljonen challenge prize, the Silver Postiljon, for his collection "4 Skilling Banco" at the National Exhibition GOTHEX 2011 in Gothenburg. The Prize is awarded as a national Grand Prix by the jury to the exhibitor with the best display in competition.

Our chairman of the board, Claes Arnrup, has been interviewed by Swedish radio. Among the things discussed was the upcoming auction (25-26 March 2011), particularly the fantastic Skilling Banco drawing by Sparre, and the future of philately.

Listen to the interview (in Swedish) here!

The Fakes, Forgeries & Experts Journal and Postiljonen AB present a fabulous philatelic item - a previously unknown, reconstructed block of four of Denmark's first issue, the 2 RBS. Read more here! (1.5 MB PDF file)

The Postiljonen challenge prize, the Silver Postiljon, is awarded as a national Grand Prix by the jury to the exhibitor with the best display in competition. At the National Exhibition SKÅNELAND 2010 in Kristianstad the jury awarded Mr. Jan Berg for his collection "Private ship letter stamp issuing companies up to 1900"

ASCAT, the world-wide society of the leading publishers of catalogues, albums and magazines for stamp collectors, has chosen to award Mr. William “Bill” H. Gross the ASCAT Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious international philatelic awards. Mr Gross is awarded the prize due to his great achievements and contributions as a Philatelist. However his acts as a Philanthropist impressed the ASCAT Grand Prix Committee even more.

The Swedish Philatelic Federation & Postiljonen AB recently hosted a seminar about Postal History and Thematic Philately at Elite Hotel Savoy in Malmö. The F.I.P. sanctioned seminar was a big success with more than 80 participants from 21 countries attending. View the official report here! (1 MB PDF file)

The most prestigious philatelic award in Sweden, The Silver Postiljon, is awarded as a national Grand Prix by the jury to the exhibitor with the best display in competition. At the National Exhibition NorrPhil 2009 in Stockholm this past weekend the jury gave this challenge trophy to Mr. Joseph Hackmey for his excellent display of Cape of Good Hope. This collection was exhibited for the first time and it is now qualified to compete for the International Grand Prix at IBRA ´09 in Essen and at LONDON 2010.

This was the 20th time The Silver Postiljon was handed out since the price was established in 1977 and the first ever winner, John Jacob Engellau, then immediately went on to win the international Grand Prix in Toronto 78. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that Mr. Hackmey can repeat this great achievement.