Sports stars, trains and children's programmes on 2006 stamps from Sweden

This year Sweden celebrates the 150th anniversary of the opening of its first railroad to general traffic. Railroads brought about a communication revolution. Before the locomotive most people only had two reliable means of transportation, the horse and buggy or their own two feet. With the expansion of the railroad more people could travel than ever before.
 
Sweden Post is celebrating the runaway success of the train in Sweden with a stamp booklet and a roll of stamps called Wonderful trains. The six trains depicted on the new postage have all played an important role in the growth of the railroad over the past 150 years.
 
Today, Sweden Post also releases My heart, a booklet of stamps featuring four different hearts to light the fires of passion in the cold of winter. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, what better way to reach out and touch those you care about than with stamps from the heart? 
 
A selection of the stamp issues in 2006
In March Sweden Post takes a closer look at the modern coffee culture that has emerged in Sweden, where the café has become a second living room and the menu includes macchiato, espresso and caffé latte. The Hot Coffee issue is released on 29 March. On the same date Sweden Post is issuing a set to mark the 60th birthday of Sweden's King - Carl XVI Gustaf 60 Years Old - with a stylish, artistic issue portraying the King in profile.
 
Children have designed the stamps for the 4 May issue. Linda Wong, aged 7, and Alexandros Terzis, 10, won a design competition and were asked to create the stamps for The Letter from Sweden, an issue on the theme of integration and immigration.
 
4 May is also the issue date for this year's summer stamps, Summer by the Lake, as well as the major sports issues Swedish Track-and-Field Sports - featuring Swedish sports stars Carolina Klüft, Stefan Holm, Christian Olsson and Kajsa Bergqvist.
 
On 30 September Sweden Post is issuing stamps bearing motifs from Swedish children's television over the years: Children's Programmes for All Times.
 
Digital images can be downloaded here:
http://cws.huginonline.com/P/134112/pictures.html
 
For more information, please contact:
Thérèse Bergling, PR & Communications, Sweden Post Stamps, phone: +46 (0)8-781 64 60; e-mail: therese.bergling@posten.se.
 
Technical details
 
Release date: January 26
 
Wonderful trains
Wonderful trains will be issued in a booklet featuring five different locomotives and a roll depicting the X40.

The Mallet (pronounced Mallay), a locomotive named after its Swiss inventor, Anatole Mallet, was built in 1891. With a width of 600 millimeters, its track was the smallest ever used in Sweden to service general traffic.
 
The rail bus was a diesel powered train that could travel where electric trains could not. Most rail buses were built in northern Sweden.
 
The SJ class D, an electric universal locomotive, could be used interchangeably for heavy freight and fast-moving passenger trains. The wooden locomotive went into operation with the opening of the Stockholm-Gothenburg line in 1926. During the train's last 10 years it was made out of steel.
 
Sweden's most powerful steam engine is the R locomotive from 1908. It was manufactured to pull trains filled with ore weighing 1,300 tons.
 
The RC engine is perhaps the most well-known Swedish locomotive. Like its class D counterpart, it is a universal locomotive for freight and passenger trains. The RC locomotive enjoyed tremendous success abroad, on the U.S. market in particular.
 
The faster the society, the faster the train. The X40 train, featured on the roll of stamps, mainly serves regional traffic as a replacement for slower intercity trains. The first X40 train was manufactured in 2004 with a maximum speed of 200 km/hour.
 
Format: Booklet of 10 stamps (five designs); roll
Photography provided by: Swedish railroad museums and SJ
Typographer: Olöf Baldursdóttir
Engravers: Piotr Naszarkowski, Lars Sjööblom and Martin Mörck
Manufacturing process: Combination (booklet); four-color offset (roll)
Denomination: 5.50 kronor, First-Class domestic (booklet); 10 kronor, First-Class international (roll).
 
My heart
There are so many ways to illustrate a heart. The issue of "My heart" contains four special stamps for letters to loved ones:
 
- a tattooed heart for love eternal
- a heart-shaped leaf for nature's soul
- a hastily painted blood-red heart as a testament to the power of love
- a heart carved into the trunk of a birch tree as a classic demonstration of love, now and forever
 
Format: Booklet of 10 self-adhesive stamps (four designs)
Typographer and art director: Elisabeth Björkbom
Manufacturing process: Four-color offset
Denomination: 5.50 kronor, First-Class domestic
 
Brief facts about some of the stamps being issued in 2006
 
Day of issue: 29 March
 
Hot Coffee
To have a cup of coffee is to treat yourself to a moment alone. You may sit at a café and write a card or letter while the world outside whirls by; or create time and space for those important things that can only be said face-to-face. Coffee culture and café culture are two sides of the same coin, and they have created a second living room away from home.
Hot Coffee is Sweden Post's take on modern coffee culture. The issue encompasses different ways of enjoying the beverage - with caffé latte, cappuccino, caffe freddo, macchiato and cortado on the menu. The stamp value is First-Class domestic.
 
Carl XVI Gustaf 60 Years Old
Portraying monarchs in profile is a tradition that hails back a long way. In 2006 King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden is 60 years old, and Sweden Post is publishing a jubilee issue to mark the occasion. The issue pays tribute to the traditional means of interpretation, yet the stamps still contrast with old precursors and are very much contemporary portraits. The issue contains three stamps. The stamp value is 10 kronor First-Class international.
 
Day of issue: 4 May
 
The Letter from Sweden - EUROPA 2006
Children waving to each other. Three happy children of different ethnicity holding hands. A boy with a suitcase on his way to Sweden. Ask children to draw a picture of immigration and integration and the results are truly diverse, often stimulating surprising ideas. The Letter from Sweden issue comprises two stamps. One shows three children with different skin colours and was created by Linda Wong, aged 7. The other shows a map of Sweden, covered by the Swedish flag, and a boy on the road leading to his new country. This stamp was created by Alexandros Terzis, aged 10. The stamp value is 10 kronor First-Class international.
 
Summer by the Lake
A huge, snorting elk climbs out of the water. A father helps his daughter land the season's big catch. A picnic never tasted so nice as on a summer's day by a Swedish lake.
This year's summer stamps show life by some of Sweden's beautiful inland lakes. The issue comprises self-adhesive stamps in a booklet and a coil stamp. The stamp value is First-Class domestic.
 
Swedish Track-and-Field Sports
Athletics can be anything from everyday exercise to elite competition. Athletics was a key element of the ancient Olympics and is still very much in focus today in major competitions. A stamp issue of four coil stamps pays tribute to four successful Swedish athletes: Christian Olsson, Carolina Klüft, Stefan Holm and Kajsa Bergqvist.
The values are 10 kronor (First-Class international), 5.50 kronor (First-Class domestic) and 4.80 kronor.
 
Day of issue: 30 September
 
Children's Programmes for All Times
The first official television broadcast in Sweden was on 4 September 1956. Today, most of us have some kind of relationship with TV. Perhaps we remember our childhood when Drutten and Gena kept us amused, or the pranks of Trazan and Banarne. Children's TV influences mealtimes in many families today, and has become a permanent fixture in our everyday lives.
 
The Children's Programmes for All Times booklet is a set of eight motifs featuring various characters from the world of children's TV. The stamp value is 5.50 kronor, First-Class domestic.

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