Finnish Vikings

Finnish Vikings

Introduction

Swedish Vikings
- Sweden
- Estonia
- Ukraine

Norw. Vikings
- Norway
- Isle of Man
- Faeroe Islands
- Iceland
- Greenland
- Canada

Finnish Vikings
- Finland / Aland Isl.

Danish Vikings
- Denmark
- British Isles

Miscellaneous
- Checklist
- Useful Links
- About the Author

Finland has seemingly not issued any stamps about their Vikings, except for this issue, which is a joint issue between Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. The page about Danish Vikings gives more information.

Please note that the stamp is erroneously listed in Scott Catalogue for 1968. The correct date of issue is 1969.

The stamp was engraved by Czeslaw Slania.

Finland 1969. Nordic Postal Cooperation. Joint issue between Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Finland 1969. Nordic Postal Cooperation. Joint issue between Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Ancient ships, inspired by coins found at the Swedish Viking site Birka (outside Stockholm).

Nothing much is known about the Finnish Viking-history, except for the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldson, also known as St. Olaf, who introduced Christianity in Norway, Finland and the Aland Islands. Olaf Haraldson is described on the page about Norway.

The Aland Islands is a group of 6.554 small islands at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia, between Finland and Sweden. It is a province of Finland, awarded to the latter by the League of Nations in 1921. Both Finnish and Swedish is spoken, and the islands have a considerable amount of self-governing. The currency is FM, now converted to Euro. Since 1984 the islands have issued their own postage stamps by an independent post office, and the islands participate in international stamp exhibitions on equal footing with the other Nordic Countries.

Aland 1995. Viking ship. Stamp #1 in a set of 4.

In 1995 the Aland Islands issued a set of four stamps, featuring various types of commercial ships.

The stamp shown here is the first in this set. The ship is of the Skuta-type, but as such not related to Viking history. It is only shown here for the sake of "completeness".

Aland 1995. Skuta-type commercial ship, (the first stamp in a set of four).

Philatelically the Aland Islands are considered an attractive collecting area, because they issue only a limited annual amount of stamps, reflecting to the point local history and culture, which dates back to the Bronze Age, and is rather different from the Finnish, the latter being much influenced by migrating peoples from Central Europe and Russia.

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