New stamps feature Swedish children's TV and 650th anniversary of Hanseatic League

Sveriges Television (SVT), the Swedish public service television company, has invested heavily in children's programs since its first broadcasts 50 years ago. Sweden's foremost actors have contributed and many programs are repeated for decades after their original transmission. Children's programs have been a major success with viewers in Sweden and have also won international awards.
 
The stamp issue contains eight stamps and the designs are a mixture of various TV characters through the 50-year history of children's programs. Characters from children's programs have become well-known friends on TV for children and adults alike. The stamp motifs include the kind, strong Pippi Longstocking whose story became a movie in the 1960s. Today Pippi is an important role model for many children. One of SVT's earliest children's programs was Humle och Dumle, first broadcast in 1959. The two friends lived in Captain Bäckdahl's pantry where there was magic - a new phenomenon for many Swedish children.
 
One of SVT's greatest successes through the ages is the educational play show Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter (Five Ants is more then Four Elephants), which helped teach hundreds of thousands of children to count, write and distinguish between here, there, first and last through play and song. The international children's show Bananas in Pajamas is a program modern children will recognize from their TV screens.
 
Stamp issues September 7
The German Hanseatic League dominated trade in the Baltic Sea area in the Middle Ages, shipping goods in their large superliners, known as 'cogs'. This year is the 650th anniversary of the Hanseatic League and Sweden Post is producing a joint stamp issue with Germany. The architecture in Stockholm's Old Town and the city of Visby on Gotland island bears witness to German influences. Even today the Swedish language has words taken from German.
 
The three musical contemporaries Mozart, Kraus and Bellman have also been made into stamp motifs. The cultural scene in Sweden flourished under King Gustav III, and German Joseph Martin Kraus played music at the Swedish Royal Court. He also socialized extensively with Carl Michael Bellman, one of Sweden's leading ballad singers. Kraus and Mozart are believed to have met, primarily because Kraus's Parliament March for Gustav III is strongly influenced by Mozart's opera Idomeneo.
 
Digital press images can be downloaded at: http://cws.huginonline.com/P/134112/pictures.html
 
For more information, please contact:
Åsa Ivarsson, PR & Communications, Sweden Post Stamps, tel +46 (0)8-781 54 96 (also cell), e-mail: asa.ivarsson@posten.se. Note: Returns from vacation August 21.
 
Sweden Post Press Service, +46 (0)8-23 10 10 (24 hours)
 
 
Day of issue: September 7
 
The Hanseatic League 650 Years - Sweden-Germany
The Hanseatic League was originally a guild of traveling northern German merchants who jointly influenced the development of modern cities and created a common trading area in the Baltic Sea region. The guild held its first general meeting in Lübeck in 1356, officially becoming the Hanseatic League. 2006 is the 650th anniversary of the League's formation, an occasion the Swedish and German Post Offices are commemorating with a joint issue.
 
The stamps are issued in a booklet of four stamps in three designs. Engraving by Lars Sjööblom. Design and typography by Gustav Mårtensson and Joachim Rieß. The stamps are printed in two-colour recess and four-colour offset. The denomination is 10 kronor, First-Class international.
 
 
Mozart, Kraus and Bellman
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-92) and Carl Michael Bellman (1740-95) were three prominent musicians all active in the Gustavian era under Gustav III, in the mid-18th century. Kraus and Mozart were both born 250 years ago.
The flourishing cultural scene in Stockholm came to an abrupt end when Gustav III was assassinated at the masquerade ball in 1792, and it was another 20 years before Mozart entered the Swedish opera scene.
 
The stamp issues contains three designs in a coil. Engraving by Martin Mörck and Piotr Naszarkowski, design by Kjell Sjögren. The coil stamps are printed in three-colour recess and issued in denominations of SEK 5.50 (First-Class domestic), SEK 5 (Second-Class domestic) and SEK 4.80.
 
 
Day of issue: September 30
 
Classic Children's TV in Sweden
The Classic Children's TV in Sweden issue shows eight stamps with a variety of characters from the 50 years of children's television in Sweden.
 
The first official TV broadcast in Sweden was on 4 September 1956, late compared to other countries in Europe. Things developed quite quickly, and 10 years later 80% of the population could receive TV broadcasts. Today that figure has risen to over 99%.
 
The range of programs and channels has exploded in recent years, but for many Swedish adults the TV shows of childhood are nostalgic memories with universal points of reference. According to a 1975 survey, 80% of all Swedish children watched Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter (Five Ants is more than Four Elephants).
 
The stamps are issued in a booklet of eight stamps in eight designs. The stamps were engraved by Lars Sjööblom, Martin Mörck and Piotr Naszarkowski. Design and typography by Norbert Tamas. The stamps are printed in two-colour recess and four-colour offset The denomination is SEK 5.50.
 
 
Sweden Post connects people and organizations around the world by delivering mail promptly, reliably and cost-effectively. We drive value creation by combining conventional postal services and convenient electronic solutions, and integrating these services into customer businesses. With over 4,000 retail service outlets, we provide daily service to 4.5 million homes and 900,000 businesses in Sweden. Every day we handle 20 million pieces of mail. With sales of over SEK 25 billion and roughly 30,000 employees, the group is one of the largest in Sweden. The parent company, Posten AB (publ), is wholly owned by the Swedish state. For more information, please visit our website at www.posten.se