One of the most valued Swedish stamp issues are so called Landstormen surcharges.  These are semipostals used to collect funds to equip soldiers during World War I.

First about the series name… Between 1885 and 1941 Swedish soldiers were divided in “Beväringen” and “Landstormen”. Beväringen was the younger classess / men in the active service,  and Landstormen referred to  older classes in reserve.   In practice Landstormen was used mostly for the Swedish army’s area defense.

The first Landstormen series (Landstormen I) contains a new print of the invalidated 1872/86 Circular type series.  The stamps differ from the original circular type series on paper, which has wavy lines +letters watermark.  However, there exists an special edition Landstormen I on original stamp paper (with post horn on back).  The stamps were overprinted with new values and sold for the double face value.

1916 Sweden Landstormen I semipostal - Michel #86, cat.value 6.00€

The second Landstormen (Landstormen II) set was overprinted on old, and not any more used postage due stamps (or as swedish call – Löjsen).  These are extremely difficult to find as perfectly centered copies;  catalog prices usually apply for mixed / poorly centered copies.

On the left 1916 Landstormen II type, on the right 1918 Landstormen III type

The third Landstormen series (Landstormen III) reused unsold stamps from Landstormen I set. These were once again applied with new face value overprint.  The Circular type values of 2 – 6 öre should be overprinted with 7+3 öre, and 12 – 50 öre with 12+8 öre face value.  But there was some kind of mix up in the printing, and some of the overprints were mixed. The mixed overprint values are somewhat rare as used, but more common as mint/unused.

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