Russian Stamps Used In Finland

Please tell me if the green stamps are SC #47 and the dark blue SC # 51.
Thanks.

You'll have to provide closer/better scans to allow for any determination of their catalogue numbers. But the blue stamp is definitely not #51, the design is all wrong. Could be #42 or 60. Do the green stamps have thunderbolts across the postal horns in the design, under the imperial eagle? If so they may be #47, or #56, depending on the perforations and whether the paper has horizontal or vertical laid lines, which may be difficult to determine for those on the cover.
Finland at this time was part of the Russian Empire, and had stamps similar to these. But I think those are definitely Russian, according to the denomination (KOn - forgive me I don't have a cyrillic keyboard), Finnish stamps would be PEN.

Hi bigmel222,

I think based on the numbers you've suggested you are looking at the Scott listing of Finland stamps in the Russian designs, Scott Finland #46-#58.

However, while your stamps have the Russian currency they do not have the extra circles added to the designs for that set.

I think these are more interesting. They are, as described on the page, regular Russian stamps that were used in Finland. James has suggested some of the numbers to look under.

I think the cover is interesting too.

It was sent to Lucius & Bruening in Hoechst am Main in Germany. This was a chemical company that eventually evolved into Hoechst AG which is now part of Sanofi Aventis.

Yep, imperial Russian stamps used in Finland during the oppression period (when stamps of Finnish grand duchy were disallowed). I think these are not given Scott numbers, but Finnish catalogs do list them on back-of-the-book. What you've got there are #SV22 (2 kop green), SV28(10kop blue), the last stamp on the second row seems to be normal Finnish stamp from issue of 1911. The Russians you've got catalog 1-2€ a peice, the Finnish stamp of 1911 is minimum catalog value item.

-k-

Hi scb,

Isn't the last stamp on the second row also a Russian stamp?

The value appears to start with a Cyrillic "D" rather than a Cyrillic "P".

A larger/better scan would help to say for sure, to me the face value (or what is to be seen under postmark) seems like '5' in which case it would be Finnish stamp. I'm sure you know the differences in design (as illustrated below):

Top row Russian, bottom Finnish



The Russian stamps were removed from public sales in Finland May 1911 and replaced with new design that is identical to Russian stamps of the time except face value in Penni(both in Russian and Finnish) as illustrated above. The Russian stamps remained valid domestic postage up to late 1917 (along Finnish stamps), and they were actually required for all overseas mail till early 1918 as the stamps of Finnish Grand duchy and Republic of Finland were not recognized by UPU before.

-k-

That was new for me - and what I would describe as a "cool-fact"
Thanks for sharing your insight keijo

I thought this was worth sharing...

A 1903 postcard with tri-lingual (Russian, Finnish & Swedish) cancellations in triplicate!

Reposaari, Pori and Kristinestad