Paper read before the Dundee Philatelic Society, 20th October, 1910.

The stamps of this issue show a wonderful range and variety of cancellation marks, some of which are extremely rare and interesting. Probably the rarest is an eight-pointed star composed of eight symmetrical lozenge-shaped segments. I have found only one copy of this in eighty thousand of this issue.

Another interesting cancellation is the six-pointed star, which is usually found in blue varying from deep to pale. It is generally to be found on the five, ten and twenty-five Penni stamps. I have never seen it on the twenty Penni.

The earliest common cancellation of these stamps is a small single-lined circle, containing the name of the town, together with day, month and year in figures. This cancellation can be found in many colours, in blue of varying shades and density, in green, in purple, in violet and in marone.

A similar cancellation can be found in black, in which the town’s name is included, the date being written in with ink. These are comparatively rare.

The next cancellation, which came into general use about two years later, was that in which a larger double-lined circle was used with the town’s name between the inner and outer lines and the date in the centre. This is also found occasionally in shades of blue, green, violet, and marone. A later cancellation which came into general use in 1887 to 1889 was the still larger double-lined circle with two straight lines crossing the centre, between which is found the date, while the town’s name is generally printed in Russian in one half of the cancalletion and in Finnish on the other half.

These cancellations can be found in several colours. One of the rare cancellations to be found on the stamps of this issue is a small oblong obliteration on all the lower values of this issue, but it is very rarely met with in colours, and then only in blue or green.

A circular grid cancellation, composed of coloured or black squares intersected by broad white lines, was used in the rural districts. This cancellation varies very much in the size of the coloured squares and is to be found in blue, marone, and violet as well as black.

Another cancellation that is occasionally to be found in the stamp of this issue is that which may be called a “wheel” cancellation, in which a number of coloured or black segments are arranged to form a sort of wheel.

Another cancellation only met with on the stamps of this issue is one in which there are several straight lines placed together in pairs at right angles to form a sort of cross. In the twenty Penni values I have been able to make up a complete set of what I call a numbered cancellation. This is a very curious cancellation, generally printed in black upon the stamps and seems to have been used in the remote rural districts where they had no Post Offices, but apparently had a sort of post-cart collection. On the cancellation generally appears the word “Expedition Finska” between the two circular lines defining the cancellation, and immediately above the date the number is found, such as No. 1, No. 4, etc. I have been able to trace twelve numbers in this cancellation and they nearly always appear on the twenty Penni stamp.