Grandpa’s hobby

[12.09.2013]
Hello my dears,

Grandpa’s hobby is probably the wrong title for this post because even my grandpa doesn’t something that ‘boring’.
Probably no one of you can guess that I collect stamps. It started last Christmas when I wanted to buy a Finnish book on ebay. I didn’t get it but the next hit were 30 wonderful stamps with the mark ‚Suomi‘.

You have to know that I love taking part at auctions till 1 or 2€ that doesn’t interest me at all and in 80% of cases I don’t get the things because someone gives 50ct more. But not with theses stamps. On Christmas most people aren’t interested in Finnish stamps, I think. One week later I had an envelope with the stamps in my hands and I didn’t want to open it because I thought my mother would laugh at me. Somehow the colourful papers fascinated me and so I purchased by auctions about 20 other packages. Always I had a bank transfer of 1,55€ - 2€ my mum asked ‚Are these stamps?’, and yeah, they were.  

At the first view this hobby might really look a bit bleak but if you specialize yourself for one country, it could become interesting and sometimes I stop breathing when I find a treasure of 1910 in my collection. I really like purchasing a collection without knowing what’s in it and at home they get graded and if it’s necessary free of glue and paper stuff.  

Since this random buying I recognized what little artworks stamps are. They have beautiful colours and motives from all different sections of the Finnish culture. But the best thing ist he story behind each.

This letter for example was send in December 1938 in Helsinki. What said it? Was it a love letter that brought two people together? Was the stamp on a birthday greeting, a grandma sent to her grandchild? Or was it a letter with bad news, maybe some contained forebodings of the war? Because of the value and date you can guess a lot of things but this kind of uncertainty makes it so fascinating for me.

No matter how old-fashioned this hobby might be, I love it. So I always have a tiny part of Finland with me and let my imagination run free. 

_Marie_
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