Finland - Very Large Stamps Similar To 1885 - No Value

Hi,

Very large stamps similar to 1885...

What is that? Cinderella stamp? Perf : 11 1/2

Thank you!

CDNum.

Cdnum, I believe these cinderellas may have been produced by a Finnish candy company from the same period as the issuance of the stamps they mimic. It has been many years since I read about them, so my memory may not be correct.

Thank you Bookbndrbob!

Not easy to find something about that :-)

CDNum.

Not one of those I fear. All the forgeries made from 'Fazer candy wrappers' I've seen and am aware have had:

a) face value printed on stamp (the wrappers had very accurate imitations of original stamps, except printed on candy wrapper and with printed teeth), and

b) stamps printed on wrapper bear a (printed) 'HELSINKI' bi/trilingual cancellation

Yours fail both characteristics (and also the paper looks different. The candy wrapper paper is very thin).

They could be from some Russification era 'memorial card'. Finns took it really hard when Russians denied use of Finnish stamps, and several different memorial cards with printed images of 'forbidden stamps' were made and used. But the stamp images in these cards too include 'face value' (would be tempted to add word 'always', but I'm sure somebody would come with exception).

I can live with the artistic freedom of the design, but the thing that really bothers me are the missing umlauts in 'penniä'. Without those the word does not mean anything in Finnish. So I'd say it's a non-Finnish fake of some sorts.

-k-

Hi,

characteristics :

- Paper : souple like normal stamp; not hard like card
- Size : approximatively 1 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches
- Cracked gum on back; look very old
- Color : 1 x green and rose / 1 x red
- Perf 11 1/2

interesting stamps :-)

Thank you Scb!

CDNum.

When first saw them I thought they were proofs of some sort. Just my two cents.