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December 1st 1930
Philatelic News and Views from Finland,
by Jorma Pohjanpalo.
As I do not think that there has been published yet in Australia any news about my native country, I hope that some
information and news about recent happenings of the Finnish philatelic world would be of interest to Australian
stamp collectors and dealers.
I presume you all know that Finland is now an entirely independent country. The declaration of this great event
happened on December 6, 1917. In consequence, also, stamps were altered, showing henceforth the Finnish coat of
arms (lion), the name of the country in both local languages, namely, in Finnish (Suomi) and Swedish (Finland), as
well as values. The unit of currency is (gold standard) markka (mark), divided into 100 pennia (pennies). One
guinea is equal to 100 Finnish marks.
Even under the Russian rule Finland, being an autonomous Grand Duchy, had her own stamps, bank notes, coins,
etc., but they bore signs of her undesirable and alien master. Many of these old-time stamps are now very rare and
expensive, of course.
But although Finland in 1917 declared herself an independent country, this brought Finland, despite all promises,
only theoretically into a better position. A war for freedom was imminent, and it commenced at the end of January,
1918. As the southern part of Finland, where, for instance, the capital of the Republic of Finland, Helsinki
(Helsingfors; 230,000 inhabitants), lies, was occupied for several months by enemies, "'White Finland" ran short of
the newly printed stamps. This was the main reason which necessitated the issue of the provisional so-called
"Waasa stamps." They bore also the coat of arms of Finland, but on a different background.
Since this, the values and colors of the stamps have been somewhat changed, according to postage rates and
international rules, also some surcharges were issued in 1919-20, but the stamp model itself has remained
unaltered. Already for some years the Philatelic Societies, stamp collectors and many other people have expressed
their opinion that these stamps should be changed into more "speaking" stamps, i.e., into such which would be
bigger in size, more attractive, and advertising, which would make Finland universally known as an interesting
country, specially from ttfe viewpoint of tourists. Finland is a most delightful country in its scenic beauty,
possessing thousands of lakes and islands; in fact, more lakes than any other country in the world.
The Finnish postal authorities, however, are not especially keen on reforms or issuing new stamps, and it took until
January 1 this year till the new stamps were issued. Many people are, though, disappointed with them, as they, in
their opinion, are not representative enough; some blame the designs and printing work, especially as only the
higher values, 5, 10 and 25 marks, are pictorial. The smaller values, namely, 5, 10, 20, 25, 40, 50 and 60 pennies,
and 1, 2 and 3 marks, are still of the lion model, although in different design. The 5 mark steel blue stamp, which
pictures the medieval castle of Olavinlinna, is generally considered to be the most successful one. I may also
mention that new postcards of Imk., Imk., 20p., 2mk. and 2mk., 40p. have been issued.
The only stamps issued for charitable purposes in Finland are the Red Cross stamps. In 1922 a big-sized stamps at
Imk. 50p. was issued, but it is good only for local postal service. Apparently the sale of this stamp has not been
satisfactory, as three new types of Red Cross stamps, namely, Imk. 10p., Imk. 65p., and 2mk. 20p., have been
issued on February 1 this year. These stamps, which are good also for international postal service, have an edition
of only 200,000 each, thus certainly becoming valuable in a short time. But it is stated that from now on different
Red Cross stamps will be issued every year, their editions being very limited. The Red Cross of Finland receives
for its purposes 10 per cent, of the sale of these stamps. The rest of the old Red Cross stamps, so I have heard, will
be publicly auctioned in the beginning of next year. The Postal Department has already on several previous
occasions held auctions, disposing of considerable quantities of its both unused and used stamp stocks.
In December, 1927, two special types of lion stamps, limk. and 2mk., were issued, to celebrate the declaration of
the independence of Finland ten years ago.
In November, 1928, all the Finnish stamp collectors' societies and clubs in co-operation organ-
ised the First Finnish Stamp Exhibition in Helsinki. It was a great success, and on account of this event two
surcharges on ordinary Imk. and limk. were printed. In this connection I may mention that there are at present ten
Philatelic Societies in existence in Finland, the oldest one being established in 1890.
To commemorate the 7th centenary festivities of the old University town, Turku (Abo), three big-sized pictorial
stamps, Imk., IJmk. and 2mk., were issued last year.
The issue of air mail stamps has also been suggested, but I just read from papers that the State Council has not
considered it necessary. Consequently ordinary stamps will be continuously used for aerial mail service.
Of course there are quite a number of errors, color, printing, perforation, etc., varieties among Finnish stamps—just
the same as in all stamps —but space does not allow me to go into any details in this respect. I can only assure you
that it is very interesting to specialise in the stamps of Finland.
The world's greatest dirigible, the German "Graf Zeppelin" visited the capital of Finland on September 24. On
account of this notable event, and as the Zeppelin also carried mail, the current 10 MK stamp was issued with
respective overprint, and it was valid as such for one day only. The stamp has already now become fairly valuable,
as the edition was only 50,000. One stamp out of each sheet (containing 100 stamps) has erroneous date (true
mistake and not a "Philatelism"), thus being exceedingly valuable and sought after by stamp collectors and dealers.
As to philatelic literature in the Finnish language, some interesting and valuable handbooks, catalogues,
descriptions, studies, etc., has been published. A notable event and advance also is the First Finnish Stamps
Collectors' Album, published in Finnish, Swedish, German and French, early this year. It contains 160 pages, and
costs only 5/6.
I must still mention the Finnish Postal Museum. Although young and still comparatively small, it anyhow contains
quite a number of interesting and valuable stamps, postcards, envelopes, historical documents and postal articles,
etc., which are not interesting only from a philatelist's, but also from a general, viewpoint.
The excellent young-poeople's magazine "Nuoiri Voima"
(address: Porvoo, Suomi, Finland)
gives also regularly one page for philately and another one for advertisements.
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Posted 08/13/2010 9:53 pm
