Usage of St.Andrew's Cross

What is St.Andrew's Cross?

Pretty soon after the first stamps were issued in the 19th century, the forgers also started to forge as many stamps as possible. Of course the work of forgers becomes so much easier if they have access to genuine (and possibly already gummed) paper used in the actual stamps. Austria was the first country to introduce St.Andrew's cross by printing the "X"-shaped cross in stamp sheets where stamps were not printed. The first ever issue to use this technique was Austrias' first stamp issue printed in June 1850. Austrians needed the technique because they printed sheets of stamps in such a way that a single sheet's combined value was even with their currency's main denominatin florin and not cost additional fractional kreutzers (1 florin equalled 60 kreutzers). The need dispersed in 1858 when Austria reformed their currency. However, the technique has since been used by postal authorities around the world especially when printing booklets. 

The actual intent was to prevent forgery and had no monetary value or other use whatsoever. Therefore these "blanks" were just thrown away or used as envelope seals or whatnot. It stands to reason most of them have been lost and while they do not have a face-value per se, stamps (particularly early stamps of the 19th century) that are still adjoined with these are worth much more because of their scarcity. Also in philatelic studies it is easier to pin-point the positions of each stamp within their sheet or booklet pane if the St.Andrew's cross motif is adjacent.

St.Andrew's Cross in Finnish Stamps

Usage in Finland is mainly limited to booklet panes. While the cross is used as is in many countries, in Finland it was deemed not necessary to print the entire cross and instead Finnish booklets have but a half-cross. So instead of having a cross containing two lines, only one line was printed to Finnish booklets and always from bottom left to top right of the stamp. 

Examples to follow ... under construction.