Mysterious Red Cross postcards
from Finland and Åland - continuation

In Newsletter 153 of September this year, I wrote an article to highlight the Red Cross postcards from Finland and Åland. The Finnish Red Cross (in Finnish: SPR = Suomen Punainen Risti or in Swedish: FRK = Finlands Röda Kors) has had a special relationship with the Finnish Post for over 100 years. Since 1988 the Finnish Red Cross has, with permission from the Finnish Post, issued postcards and sold them at newsstands, stationers, and department stores, but not at post offices. The postcards feature an imprinted stamp (in Swedish and Finnish language) that was originally valid only for the Scandinavian countries but is now valid for mailing worldwide.
The story was illustrated with the only postcard I knew of: the one about the "anarchistic grannies," a design by artist Inge Löök.

I ended my story hoping for more information about the cards. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. Inquiries about these cards with the printer yielded little. They print the cards and send them to the client. Although the Finnish Post gives permission for cards and envelopes to be imprinted with a stamp image, they have no further information. The Finnish Postal Museum, through Sanna Oikarinen, also has no information, other than that the cards were printed with permission from the Finnish Post and provided with a pre-printed stamp for worldwide shipping: they are therefore postal stationery.
My last hope lies with the client: the Finnish Red Cross. But although I was told that the staff member responsible for this matter was on vacation and would contact me upon his return, that didn't happen.
However, there has been some unexpected response.

There's a website on the World Wide Web dedicated to bicycle stamps: www.bicyclestamps.de.
The owner and administrator of this website for bicycle philately collectors is Arnoldt Rehm. I'm in regular contact with him, and he publishes our articles related to bicycles, with our permission.
(By the way: if you have a spare hour, visit this website, which is also very interesting for us motorcycle collectors.)

Arnoldt sent me images of other charity cards with motorcycle motifs. Both are so-called Red Cross cards.

Red Cross card 2009 (Hyvää pääsiäistä! = Happy Easter!)

Red Cross card 2009 (Hyvää pääsiäistä! = Happy Easter!)

Red Cross card 2020 (Hauskaa joulua = Have a nice Christmas)

Red Cross card 2020 (Hauskaa joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta = Have a nice Christmas and a happy Newyear)

In the meantime I also purchased this card myself:

Unicef card 2012

Unicef card 2012 (Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta = Have a nice Christmas and a happy Newyear)

Nico Helling

Sources:
- John MacDonnel - in "Journal of the postal society of Australia" (Volume 4, no. 2, issue 14)
- Fins Post Museum
- Inge Löök
- Arnoldt Rehm

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