Nordia 75 Philatelic Exhibition

"Nordia 1975" International Stamp Exhibition. single stamp on illustrated, unaddressed cover, issued on 26th April 1975 with HELSINKI special exhibition first day postmark. The Nordia 1975 philatelic exhibition was arranged in honour of the 100th anniversary of Finnish four-figured stamps. Sculptor Aimo Tukiainen designed the Nordia 1975 exhibition medal.

On 27 September 1874, a total of 21 countries agreed to establish a universal postal organisation, currently known as the Universal Postal Union (UPU), with a view to organising international postal deliveries between the contracting states. Entering into force on 1 July 1875, this agreement, which also applied to Finland as an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire, defined colours for stamps according to their purpose: light-blue stamps were designed for domestic letters, pink ones for international letters and brown for domestic postcards. In addition, postage was no longer based on the distance of the mail delivery but on the mail's weight. Accordingly, it became necessary in Finland to print stamps corresponding to the new postal tariff. The Senate stipulated that the shape of the stamps issued on 1 July 1875 should be similar to the German stamps of the time. These so-called four figured stamps featured a denomination on each corner of the stamp printed in Finnish and Swedish. The colour of heraldic stamps indicated the nature of the letter in 1875. Thank you Pia for this nice FDC.