Russia 3k Red Stamp.year 1898.

Think it is a 1898 Russia postcard with a 3k stamp. Will appreciate if someone can confirm,if the background of the stamp is inverted. Will also appreciate and be thankful for any other info and details about the stamp. Thank you.

This is not Russia, it is Finland Scott No 48.

Why do you think it is inverted? Did you check against other known copies?

Nothing is inverted, but the stamp, and I think the card, are both from Finland. They are similar to Russian stamps of the period but have dots in the circles around vignette. CDC also says Helsinki.

Nice piece actually. The stamp on cover has CV of $60. The card may probably add more. Can we see the back side please?

Standard stamp, Finland 1891, 3 kopecks

Danko@ The Back is just blank. Probably the receipent then had removed the contents. Any way posting the back

Thanks for sharing this. I've not seen a Finnish letter card like this with the additional circles before.

Is there a message inside the card or are the front and back stuck together?

Nigelc@ No mssgs. Just the card only. Contents removed by the receipent,I think.

The perforations on the edge of the card make me think it might have been a reply card pair originally. The message would have been written on the other half, since it wasn't being used as a reply. I wonder if 10 kopek was the correct rate for card to Germany?

This is a type of postal stationery which is normally called lettercard. As far as I remember USA never issued such ones but they were quite common in Europe. It is a card normally about 14x18cm which has a gummed perforated edge. When mailed they are folded in the middle and closed. The addressee then normally open them by tearing away the perforated edge. However nowaday's collectors prefer lettercards which the addressee managed to open without tearing away the edge. Such ones are often paid 10 times as high as the ones without edge. So the item shown here is a lettercard. The rate for these from Finland to Germany was 10 kopeck. The rate for postal cards was 4 kopeck. I can see three reasons for the fact that there are no message inside this item: (1) It was sent only while the addressee had asked for a copy to his collection. (2) The message was written on a smaller paper put inside the lettercard. (3) The message has been erased.

(4) the short message was written only on the other half of the lettercard which has been detached.

Here is a similar unused lettercard with the perforations still attached.


The US issued a letter sheet in 1886, which is a similar idea but with more space for writing.