Cross shaped self-adhesives from Finland
I just came back from the local post office (outlet) as I had to buy some low value stamps to keep up with everchangin postal rates. I was very heavily suprised to get some of the 2008 “cross-shaped” self-adhesives decipting the Finnish archipelago.
2008 Finland - Archipelago self adhesive stamps, cut to cross format
This set have been cut to very bizarre format for a stamp. The shape is symbol of a cross (or a plus, or a four leaf clover, or anything similar). Some find these fun, but personally I experience the format as a nuisance. The stamps are very hard to take off from the sheet (and they don’t fit nicely to stockbook either).
As many have not seen what Finnish self-adhesive sheets look like, here’s a picture of a sheet (with one stamp taken for postage):
2008 Finland - Archipelago stamp sheet
What a waste of paper…
I like them!! I’m not familiar with Euros or Finnish postal rates, so how many of those “clovers” would be required to mail an international postcard??
Hi Carol,
the current Finnish rate for normal size/weight international postcard is 0.80€. So it would take 8 of these…. Low value’s such as these are mostly used as add-on stamps to keep up with everincreasing postal rates. That said, a bit suprisingly many Finnish postal rates may drop notably sometime next year as Itella (Finnish post) is investigated for unfair pricing on part of some basic postal services.
PS. For the same set, there is also 0.05€ value with a topic of “water”.
I like them too, but I can see why you don’t
these should go under “Unusual Stamps” for sure.
Myself I like to find unusual stamps when I’m perusing in stamp mixes.
I like this stamps, even if (or better: because) they are a bit unusual. Here in Germany there are only (quite boring) definitives for such low values.
I received some of them, but this is the first time I see a sheet of them.
In my opinion Finland isues many creative and interesting stamps, while most German stamps are quite boring.
BTW: I don’t think 80 Cent is very expensive. Here in germany a postcard is 65 cent for European countries, but 1 Euro for non-European countires. And letters to non-European countries are even 1,70 Euro. (Well, I have a way to send them much cheaper …)
I can only agree that many modern German stamps are quite boring – I can only wonder why. The current German flower definitives on the other hand are quite nice IMHO.
As for high postal rates, here’s a story… Some time ago I bought a 1kg box from Germany – postage to Finland (as DHL international parcel) was 9€. If I had shipped the same size/weight box from Finland to Germany by Itella (Finnish Post), it would have cost at least 36€.