Swedish stamp items with "strange" numbers

It was already quite some years ago that Hans and I visited the stamp fair in Antwerp. At a trader we found Swedish trial booklets with strange numbers. Some booklets did not have a number, others had a 1 or a 2. Quickly we gathered as many as possible sets. We almost bought his whole stock. The booklets didn't cost much, but the man's face was invaluable. The sets of booklets found their way into many collections. In the final issue of this specific booklet, "stamp day: 4 decades, a nostalgic journey" of October 5th 1996, the numbers were absent.

Frontside of the trial booklet

Frontside of the final issue

Contents of the final stamp booklet

In September 2005 a new Swedisch booklet appeared containing images of 8 different Swedish mopeds (or Mopeder). Here it is even more crazy. Apart from blanc, 1 and 2 there are also booklets with a 5 digit number. Also a souvenir sheet with these stamps is issued and look: also here blanc sheets, and sheets with a number (1 or 2 in combination with a 5 digit number).

Now I'm getting really curious. What is the meaning of these numbers on the philatelic issues from Sweden?
All modern stamps are printed in (screen)rotogravure, letter-press or offset printing.The image is brought onto a cylinder, the paper is led through the cylinders and the image is printed onto paper. Every (2) cylinders carry a number, and on every 17th booklet the cylinder number is printed.
To keep track on the printing of the booklets every 10th booklet is provided with a check number. This number contains several digits, mostly 5.
Of the souvenir sheets about 25-30% contains a check number. As can be seen on the examples it is possible that on a single sheet both the cylinder and the chek number are printed.

The souvenir sheet

If there are MFN members who have this kind of booklets or souvenir sheets with other numbers than shown here, I am very interested.

Another curiosity from Sweden is the collectors sheet of the moped issue. Sheets have been sold with only 1 half of the booklet's contents (thus only 4 stamps) glued on instead of both (8 stamps).

Glueing indicator

Nico Helling

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