“I frequently recur to nature”, says Helene Schmitz, the photographer behind this year’s Aland Christmas stamp depicting a hyacinth. She is universally recognized for her close-up pictures of flowers. At the moment, however, other motifs seem more tempting to her. Helene has worked with a great variety of projects and had exhibitions around the world. Her first publication, “Blow up”, presenting portraits of very large scale flowers, appeared in 2003. In 2007, her book “A Passion for Systems” appeared with beautiful close-up shots of flowers, a publication for which she was awarded nature photographer of the year by Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.  (read more)

published October 12th, 2011

The time has come to complete the Åland scenery series. The final two municipalities to be featured are the archipelago municipality of Kökar and Åland’s largest municipality, Jomala. All 16 Åland municipalities will then have been presented and a beautiful pack holding the 16 scenery stamps will also be available.

Kökar is an island situated in the outskirts of the Åland archipelago and the southern-most Åland municipality. Kökar is a popular place for tourists to visit. Many come here to visit the Otterböte Bronze Age site, an ancient settlement for seal hunters. Best known among the sights in Kökar is the island of Källskär. Despite its broken landscape and exposed position, the island has been creatively developed with a harbour, several buildings and a lovely garden. Tove Jansson’s painting, featured on a 2007 stamp, was previously on display on Källskär. This is also where the Pitcher of Källskär can be admired, a nature phenomenon formed by the rotation of large boulders in the whirls of glacier waters running under the ice.  (read more)

published June 17th, 2011

This August, the fourth edition of the beach volleyball tournament Paf Open will be arranged in Åland. The Post focuses on the event with the My Stamps issue.

Paf Open is a tournament for men and women on the international world tour of beach volleyball – Swatch FIVB World Tour. Paf Open was first arranged in August 2007, but the organizers refrained from arranging the event in 2008 as it collided with the Olympic Games in Beijing. Since then, Paf Open has become a recurrent event in Åland each summer.

Paf Open has developed into a popular festival with many visitors, Ålanders and tourists alike. The event is hosted at the Arkipelag Arena in the town centre of Mariehamn and gathers the very best world-class players from all over the world.

(read more)

published June 15th, 2011

In July 2010, divers exploring an old shipwreck in the Åland archipelago made a most unlikely discovery. Several bottles of very old champagne were found onboard. With a stamp issue, the Post now focuses on the spectacular find, which proved to be some of the oldest champagne in the world!

Onboard the wreck, a total of 145 champagne bottles were found. The bottles have been dated to around 1840. They have been identified to originate from the esteemed champagne houses of Veuve Clicquot, Juglar and Heidsieck. Champagne producer Jacquesson operates the estate of the now defunct House of Juglar.

(read more)

published May 3rd, 2011

Chips Ab was founded in Åland in 1969. The founders then did not know that, 30 years later, the organization would consist of an international group of companies with more than 1300 employees in the Nordic countries, the Baltic States and Russia. We focus on Åland potato chips with a stamp issue on 7 June.

The limited company Chips Ab was founded by three private initiators who wished to create a land-based industry to compensate for the considerable emigration from Åland at the time. Agriculture, fishing and commerce had long been the most important sources of income, and the initiators wanted to bring about an industry based on some type of local primary produce. One of the promoters had come across potato chips (“crisps” in UK) during his years of studies in the USA. By then, chips were already known in Sweden and Denmark, but in Åland and Finland, potatoes were considered to be merely food. Chips Ab was the first producer of potato chips in Finland. Since then, the Taffel brand continues to be a leader on the Finnish market.

(read more)

published May 3rd, 2011

The time has come for a new 5 cent stamp as well as a 4 euro stamp. Both stamps show the Åland apple cultivar Strömma with an interesting story to tell.

More than 100 years ago, the Ålander Fridolf Sundberg began spreading his varieties of apples in Åland and the southern parts of Finland. On a farm in the village of Strömma in Hammarland, he discovered the Strömma cultivar. Fridolf grafted his different varieties of apples on crab apple trees in Örnäs in the municipality of Finström, where he settled with his wife Amanda.

(read more)

published April 13th, 2011

Why does Åland Post choose to feature on a stamp an explorer and orientalist with the Arabian name Abd-al-Wali? Well, he was born in Åland 200 years ago.

His given name was Georg August Wallin and he was born 24 October 1811 in the Åland municipality of Sund. In 1817, the family moved to Turku when his father was appointed County Treasurer of Turku and Pori County. Then 18-year-old Georg August entered the University of Helsinki in 1829 to study oriental languages and received his MA in 1836. Three years later, he travelled to St. Petersburg, where he met Egyptian Sheikh Muhammad Sayyad al-Tantawi whose tales about the Middle East inspired the young scholar. Wallin conducted his first expedition in Egypt in 1843.

(read more)

published March 31st, 2011

Did you know that the creator behind many of the familiar cartoon superheroes of the 1940s and 1950s came from Saltvik, Åland?  Three of his superheroes now appear in an Åland stamp booklet.

 Paul Gustafson was born in 1916 in Saltvik. Like many other Ålanders of this époque, he emigrated to the USA with his family when he was five. Having studied at Quentin High School and Manhattan’s Cooper Union, Paul spent some years apprenticing under cartoonist Frank Owen, whose wife, Vera, was also born in Åland. At the end of the 1930s, Paul made a name for himself as an independent cartoonist creating many characters, mainly superheroes, for Marvel Comics.

(read more)

published March 17th, 2011

Around 60 % of Åland is covered by forest. This year’s Europa stamp theme therefore suits Åland Post perfectly! Artist Anette Gustafsson painted the picturesque edge of a forest.

 More than 40 varieties of trees and shrubs can be found in the Åland forests, roughly speaking. Pine-forests dominate the northern parts of Åland, whereas the southern parts consist of deciduous forests. On main Åland, we mostly find mixed forests.

 Spruce, pine and yew are three types of conifers native to Åland. Pine is the most common type of tree, both in dense forests and on bare cliffs. Spruce, on the other hand, needs nutritious soil to thrive.

(read more)

published March 16th, 2011

2011 marks 150 years since the foundation of Mariehamn. Åland Post celebrates the anniversary by issuing a miniature sheet featuring Empress Maria Alexandrovna as well as part of the first town plan for Mariehamn. The issue is a joint issue with the Russian Post.

In 1859, Tsar Alexander II of Russia recommended that a town be established in Åland close to the Svibyviken bay. Two years later, he issued a charter of foundation and the town was named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Maria Alexandrovna was born in 1824 in Darmstadt, Germany, and Empress Consort of Tsar Alexander II of Russia from 1855 until her death in 1880. Mariehamn was (read more)

published February 24th, 2011

Aland Post has been issuing Passenger Ferries stamps during several years and the stamps have now become one of the favourite series of stamps ever issued by Aland

The Ships featured on the 2011 issue released this week are the M/S Apollo (1.50 Euros)  and M/S Alandia (0.80 Euros)

The stamps have been illustrated by Håkan Sjöström and printed at Cartor Security Printer in Paris.

Aland is part of the WOPA website and therefore these stamps are available on the First International Face Value Stamp site www.wopa-stamps.;com

published February 8th, 2011