The official period of use for the model 1930 definitives lasted 33 years, from the issue of the first stamps in 1930 to the end of 1962. During this long period, where humanity fought the second world war and the time following the war with a fast depreciation of the Finnish markka there are many short postal rate periods and a number of also otherwise interesting postal rates. One of the shortest rates is definitely the nine day air mail rate to the UK that was in force 19.2. – 27.2.1945. All items that I have seen from this short period consist of a foreign letter rate and an air mail rate:

Letter to abroad (outside the Nordic countries) 1.10.1942-30.6.1945 rate 4,50mk and air mail surcharge to the UK 19.-27.2.1945 rate 4mk/5g – alltogether nine days (restricted by the air mail surcharge rate).

Above we can see a letter posted during the nine day rate 19.-27.2.1945 on the 22.2.1945 to Blackwell (UK) from Tampere, air mail surcharge (<10g); total rate 12,50mk (4,50mk letter + 2 x 4mk air mail surcharges).

Above another item from the same period, posted on 20.2.1945 from Helsinki to London, returned to sender, because the addressee has not been reached. ”Gone away” written with a pencil on the cover with the postman’s signature and ”RETOUR” and ”PARTI”  stamped on the cover. Cancelled when sent back in London SW 1, 5.3.1945. The cover has both Finnish and English censor strips (opened twice). The postage has been put together by using M30 definitive lions, 3pcs of 2mk yellow, 2pcs of 25p brown and one 5p brown, a total of 6,55mk. What we are seeing here is definitely not an item with the correct postage, still the letter definitely seems to have been delivered. The 5p stamp is made of cellulose paper and that also makes the item remarkable.

Combinations of surcharges during the nine day rate are possible, but as far as I know, no registered air mail has been found. This does not exclude the possibility of such covers lying around somewhere. There is also the possibility of air mail post cards, but the air mail post card rate has most likely been different for the period.

During the recent years there have been some of these nine day rate covers for sale in the various auctions, with near random sales prices – the prices have basically started from one hundred euro or little above and sales have taken place between the limit and close to 450€. In any case the rate seems not to be ”extremely” difficult to find, as there may have been a rather large number of letters sent to the UK during the period, including post from a number of companies.

Local letter was a type of mail delivery that lasted for the whole duration of the M30 period of use. Local letter was, however, discontinued quick after M30 was retired, on 30.6.1963 – a half-year later. The local letter is a letter that has been sent within a municipality or a city, or within an area that is considered a ”local rate” area. The maximum weight of a local letter was 500g and heavier letters were carried by using the regular letter rate.

The local letter rate changed twelve times during the 33 years of M30 period of use. In this article, which is the first part of a series of articles describing local letters, I will present some postal items from the first four local letter rate-periods; during the four first periods there were no ”local rate areas” they were instituted in 1946.

When collecting local letters it is to be noted that as Helsinki is the largest city in Finland there are significantly more local letters travelled within Helsinki. As a matter of fact the case has been this even to the extent that any local letters from outside of Helsinki are to be generally considered ”better” or ”more difficult” objects. Local letters travelled in other major cities are also quite common, but items that have travelled within small cities or municipalities can be considered sometimes even difficult objects and are far more desirable as exhibition pieces. This has been stated also in a recent article about local letters by Juhani Kerppola, one of the better known M30 postal history collectors, in ”Filatelisti”*.

The normal surcharges such as express delivery, registration, insurance, collect (cash) on delivery, and acknowledgement of delivery were in effect also for local letters and any combination of surcharges are also possible, also postage due items exist. What is not ”possible” is air mail, at least it does not make any sense. Pictures of some interesting local letters are visible in the article by Kerppola.

When one is building an exhibition collection of local letters one should include also in addition to the basic local letter rates also ”specialities” that is, different kind of rate and surcharge combinations and other than first weight class items, preferably from small municipalities or cities. I still have some way to go….

First rate-period (15.1.1926) 1.1.1930 – 30.11.1931, from the beginning of the period of use of M30 definitives, rate time  1y 11mo.

Above: A local letter in Turku (Turku 2) 8.1.1931. M30 1mk orange. Rate (-20g) 1,00mk

Above: A local letter (mourning letter) within Oitti 25.7.1930. M30 1mk orange. Rate (-20g) 1,00mk

Second rate-period 1.12.1931 – 15.6.1940, lenght of the period 9yrs 6½mo

Above: A local letter in Turku (Turku 12 Lentopaviljonki H IV (Airport)) 7.9.1936, M30 1½mk red. Rate (-20g) 1,50mk

Above: A local letter in Toijala 15.8.1936, M30 1½mk red. Rate (-20g) 1,50mk.

Above: A local letter in Oulu 11.8.1937, M30 1½mk violet. Rate (-20g) 1,50mk

Above: Two registered local letters in Helsinki 27.5.1938 and 15.3.1939, both with  M30 3½mk blue. Rate (-20g) 1,50mk, registration 1.12.1931 – 31.8.1942 2,00mk, total 3,50mk.

Above: Registered second weight class local letter 1.3.1932 in Helsinki. Rate (21-125g) 3,00mk, registration 1.12.1931 – 31.8.1942 2,00mk, total 5,00mk.

Above: A registered express delivery local letter in Helsinki 3.10.1935, M30 5mk St. Olav’s castle, 2mk blackblue and 50p green, total 7,50mk. Rate: Local letter (-20g) 1,50mk, registration 1.12.1931 – 31.8.1942 2,00mk, express surcharge 1.1.1935 – 24.7.1942 4,00mk, total 7,50mk. Above: A local letter 33.2.1938 in Helsinki. The sender has tried to send a local letter with 6pcs M17 30p green stamps, a total of 1,80mk. Rate: (-20g) 1,50mk. M17 stamps’ validity ended on 31.12.1930 that is over seven years earlier. Because of the invalidity of the M17 stamps the letter has been marked postage due, stamped with the ”T” stamp, and a postage due label has been attached. The postage due rate was twice the missing postage (starting on 15.1.1926 and running through the whole validity of the M30 definitives) in this case 2x 1,50mk = 3mk). The postage due has been done by cancelling three M30 1mk orange stamps with a pen. Above: Postage due on a local letter in Helsinki 15.9.1933. Rate (-20g) 1,50mk, but the sender has attached originally only a 1,25mk yellow M30 definitive, making the the letter 25p under the rate. Postage due 50p (twice the missing postage) and paid by cancelling two 20p green and one 10p grey with a pen.

Above: A ship letter ”Laivakirje – Paquebot” from Sweden (Stockholm) to Turku, where arrival stamped in 1933 (date visible on the cover by looking against bright light) and at the same time stamped ”T” postage due stamp, and attached a postage due label. Postage due 3,00mk twice the local letter rate, as the letter is a local letter. Most likely this is an arrival notice already ”packed” in Stockholm by the shipping company that has been put in a mailbox / posted in a post office in Turku on the ship’s arrival. [Comment: A similar object was sold, not long ago, for a lot of money – this one was purchased in an auction in the beginning of 2014 for less than ten euro]

Third rate period 16.6.1940 -31.3.1942, length of period 1y 9,5mo

Above: A large size local letter in Helsinki 30.6.1941. M30 2mk carmine red. Cover stamped with a message cancel and then only the stamp has bee attached and stamped presumably by hand. Rate: Taksa (-20g) 2,00mk.

Above: Second weight class local letter in Helsinki 10.10.1940, M30 3½mk blue. Rate (21-125g) 3,50mk.

Above: Registered local letter in Helsinki 12.4.1941. Rate: Local letter (<20g) 16.6.1940 – 31.3.1942 2,00mk, registration 1.12.1931 – 31.8.1942 2,00mk, total 4,00mk 

Fourth rate-perios 1.4.1942 – 31.8.1942, lenght of the period 4mo; the rate of the first weight class local letters remained the same as during the preceding rate-period, but all the other weight classes were changed. The division into weight classes changed that is, the number of weight classes was changed from four to three and this caused also the weights assigned to each weight class to change.

Above: A local letter in Helsinki 2.4.1942, a black square in the cancel, the second day of the rate period. Rate (-20g) 2,00mk.

I have ways to go on the first and the fourth rate period, luckily postal history and philately are hobbies that do not incur time pressure and will never be ”complete” either for that matter. The best thing about this local letter thing that I found is that by going through one’s own piles of letters and postal items one sometimes finds very nice ”new” local letter objects.

*Juhani Kerppola, Postilähetyslajit 1930 – 1962, Osa 3. PAIKALLISKIRJE, FIlatelisti, 2/2013, s.46 -49

Above: From  Helsinnki 7.5.1948 to England Liverpool, second weight class (21-40g)  letter with a clipping from a stationary with 7/6mk orange denomination (stationary card number 94, LaPe) and a 12 /10mk  violet M30 definitive lion, together 19mk the correct rate for 1.1.1947 – 30.6.1948.

Seldom there comes the chance to see how an ingenious sender has used a piece from a stationery for paying the postage on a letter. This has been ”illegal” from the point of view of the postal service and what one has in these situations is an item that non in conformity with the postal rate. In the above case we can see that such an item has been delivered  and there are no apparent markings of any extra fees or postage dues on the cover. Interesting.

Customs post-office order is a less well-known service by the post office that could be paid for with M30 definitives. What the customs post-office order is all about is nevertheless rather simple: post (usually a parcel) had come from abroad and had been intercepted by the customs, the adressee did not have to personally come to the customs post office to pay for the customs fees, but could pay it in the local post office with the customs post-office order; customs would have sent information about the payment due to the addressee. After payment the customs post office would then send the post to the final destination. The postal rate for the customs post-office order was the same as for a normal post-office order, but the money would go to the customs and a special for-the-purpose form would be used.

Above: Customs post-office order from Närpiö (Närpes) 26.11.1930 to Turku Customs office, where it has arrived 28.11.1930. The amount (the payment due to the customs) 13,25mk, including the postal rate for the post-office order 15.1.1926 – 30.11.1931 (- 100mk) 1,50mk. A 1½mk violet M30 definitive is used.

In the above item the ”coupon” is still intact, it tells us that the actual postal item had come from Helsingborg in Sweden. Customs post-office orders are available now and then, but they are not very common. The prices of these items are very variable. In auctions the starting prices are from 5-10 euro up,  but sometimes pieces can be found from ”boxes” for very low prices. Customs post-office orders are a speciality object for M30 postal history collectors so there is a very limited market for these.

Finnish model 1930 definitives come with many imperforated issues, some of these were actually ment to be used, but were left imperforated by mistake and others were never meant to be used, but only used as ”show pieces”, from special sheets meant for the purpose. In any case the imperforated M30 definitives are a speciality with regards to the model in general. There were no imperforated stamps that were put to the market intentionally.

Above: Imperforated 50p green lion with glue. Order batch number 636 (2-1945).

The imperforated M30 definitives can be divided into two ”classes” simply depending on if the stamps have glue or not. If the imperforated stamp has glue it is supposedly from a ”normal” batch meant to be used, but from a sheet that was accidentally left imperforated  and somehow was transferred to a post office to be sold to the public. There are four different imperforated M30 definitives, 50p green, 5mk violet, 5mk yellow, and 6mk red. These stamps with glue are such that can be regarded as ”genuine” imperforated M30 definitives. More about the issue in the book by Kauppi*.

Above: Imperforated 5mk violet with glue, with partial batch number. Order batch number 674 (10-1945)

Originally 200 pieces of imperforate 50p stamps and 5mk violet with glue are known to have existed (Kauppi and LaPe 2010), this means that there has been one printed sheet of each (2 ”normal” sheets, 2 pcs. of 10*10 sheets = 200pcs). As we can see from the picture above there can be only three numbered six-blocks of the 5mk violet in existence any more.

There have been 600 of the imperforated yellow 5mk lion definitives in circulation (three print sheets) and also 200 of the 6mk red. It is higly likely that most of these, as well as of the other imperforated M30 stamps have found their ways into the hands of philatelists, and only a small number has ever been used in posting items. This is why it is important to be very critical about any posted imperforated items and if their use has been philatelic or ”normal”.

Above: Imperforated 5mk yellow lion from sheet margin, with glue. Order batch 690 (12-1945). In addition, a picture of an certificate of authenticity from the Swedish Frimärkshuset AB:n given in 1959 .

The certificate of authenticity of the above 5mk imperforate stamp is in itself interesting that is, certificates of authenticity are interesting in general, because the details of these are not very well known among philatelists in general. One should do well to remember that the certificates must be recent, preferably under five years old. Also, a certificate of authenticity without a photograph / photocopy picture of the certified object are basically worth nil (see above).

Above: Imperforated 6mk red pair with glue, order batch 673 (10-1945).

Singular imperforated M30 definitives with glue are available on the markets quite frequently. The prices vary depending on the seller and start from 10 euro and up. It is important to notice that there are only a few numbered six-blocks available, so one should value these much higher. The stamps shown in this blog alone deduce two six-blocks from the number of possible in existence by two!

 Above: Imperforate non-glued blocks-of-four from six different M30 denominations. 

There are also non-glued imperforated M30 definitives out there: these are from so called ”exhibition sheets”. There are twelve different denominations of these in existence and on the markets (can be found theoretically). Ten lion type denominations and two with a picture motif (4mk postal building and 10mk view on the lake Saimaa). There have been considerable differences of opinion about if these non-glued imperforates can be considered to be philatelically important that is, if they belong in serious collections. If one is interested in this discussion there is more in Kauppi’s book. Hannu Kauppi (the foremost authority on M30 definitives in Finland) seems to think that the exhibition sheets from which these non-glued imperforated stamps come from are philatelic items and hence also belong to serious collections. It seems to be his position that these can be considered similarly as one would consider proofs.

There is one exception to the glued / non-glued rule, as far as I know there is one 50p/40p overprinted exhibition sheet that was glued, this may be because the overprints were printed on already glued imperforated sheets of 40p green stamp.

*Hannu Kauppi, Yleismerkit 1930, Oy Finlandia 88 Ab, Helsinki 2012