A quick post to share some wonderful stamps that we affixed to a recent Postcrossing card from a gentleman in Finland. Despite the rise of email and texting and Instagram communications, we are definitely in a golden age of countries producing beautiful, creative and culturally relevant stamps.
The smaller stamp on the left was issued in 2008. It was part of a Geography & Meteorology series. Here's a look at the sheet (or partial sheet), that it was printed on. It's so nice that you almost wouldn't want to use the stamps!
The bigger stamp was issued last year. It is called "Wooden Pauper tradition" and, according to one website, it didn't have a very large print run. The artist is Anssi Kähärä. The description is as follows: "A Pauper is a painted wooden sculpture to the church wall, with a slot in the chest for donating money. The oldest date from the 17th century."
Wikipedia has an entry on pauper statues (vaivaisukko), adding: "The origin of poor man statues dates back to 1649 as the Queen Christina gave an order to place so-called 'poor logs' or 'offertory logs' in churches and other public places. Soon the local carpenters started to modify these hollow wooden logs as beggar look-a-likes. ... Today there are 144 poor man statues and one poor woman statue [remaining] in Finland."
And that's your learning-with-stamps moment for this morning!
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