Finland M1930 definitive series curiosities

The M1930 Definitive Series was a long-running series of stamps that were scorned as collectible items for decades. However, as the research of this series has developed, so has it's interest among the collectors of philately and postal history. The series contains a vast treasure trove of printing material, glue and colour differences between the printings, curiosities pertaining to the form (whether issued as sheets, slot machine coil rolls or stamp booklets), printing errors and plate errors. Also, the series is fascinating for it's rich use in postal history targets - the stamps of the series were widely used during the tumultuous years of the WW2 when postal services of warring countries tried to maintain a steady service as best they could. For Finland this meant shifting alliances, difficulties in maintaining material quality, rising costs, disruptions and denials of postal services and postal agreements affecting rates - all of which are highly interesting to postal history and philately enthuasiasts!

Five marks violet unperforated pair on a philatelic product cover

This is a curiosity philatelic product. The stamp itself was issued in 29.10.1945 and was meant to be used for domestic letters. However, the postal rates for domestic letters were increased shortly after the release (16.1.1946) to eight marks so the intended use period for this stamp was only a few months.

The stamp only had a single print run of 10 million stamps. Two unperforated sheets (100 stamps per sheet) were discovered at an unknown later date and those two sheets were quickly acquired by philately enthusiasts. Some of these stamps were then used on domestic letters to create philatelic oddities.

Here is a picture of one such cover from my collection. The exact number of such letters is not known but it is known that a good number of these unperforated stamps were also sold to other collectors as mint (**) pairs so they were not all used to create philatelic covers.

While it is a philatelic product with an intent on creating a rare philatelic oddity, it is worth noting that it is also a cover that is properly circulated, has a proper use of the stamps and thus indistinguishable from actual use unless the circumstances were known. The postal rate is also correct (2 x 5 marks = 10 marks) as the postal rate for domestic letters was 10 marks for the whole year of 1947 (1.1.1947 - 31.12.1947).