Paleophilatelie.eu - Aland 1996

Aland 1996 "Fossils"

Issue Date	09.10.1996
ID	Michel: 117-118 Scott: 85, 106 Stanley Gibbons: 113-114 Yvert: 118-119 UPU: N/A Category: pF
Author	Anna-Maaret Pitk�nen-Darmark
Stamps in set	2
Value	MK 0,40- Trilobiet Asaphus MK 9,00- Gastropode 'Euomophalus' should read 'Euomphalus'.
Size (width x height)
Layout	Two sheets 20 stamp each (4x5)
Variations	FDC x3
Paper
Perforation	14,75
Print Technique	Offset, multicolor
Printed by	The House of Questa
Quantity	600,000, 800,000
Issuing Authority	Aland Post

On the �land islands between Sweden and Finland in the Baltic sea, you can find fossils from the Ordovician period. This is a only place in Finland where you can find fossils. In the University Museum in Helsinki, you can see fossils from this Islands. East of the main island there is a 9 kilometre diameter crater (Lumparn). This crater was formed by a meteor or comet impact 1200 to 500 milion years ago. You can go to the Finnish �land Islands by ferry from the Swedish or the Finnish mainland. The best spot to collect fossils is Yttern�s on the Jomala island. The finds consist of trilobites and gastropods from the Ordovician period. Some farmers allow to tourist to collect fossils on their fields at Ordovician limestone blocks. Many farmers, however, don't like collectors and soon it will be also illegal export fossils for Finland.

They are Ordovician.

Note: The �land Islands form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. They are situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia and form an autonomous, demilitarised, monolingual Swedish-speaking region of Finland. The first �land stamps were issued 1 March 1984. Approximately 15 stamps describing the �land nature, culture, history, society and autonomy are issued every year. Stamps of Aland can be used both for internal and international post services.

The stamps are depicted two fossils an Gastropoda gastropods (snails and slugs) Euomophalus and a Trilobite (Trilobita asaphus).

Asaphus is a genus of Ordovicia Trilobites.
Trilobites (meaning "three lobes") are a well-known fossil group of extinct marine arthropods form the class Trilobita.

Euomphalus is a genus of fossil marine gastropods (snails and slugs) known to have lived from the Silurian to the Middle Permian

Variations

FDC with individual stamps

FDC with both stamps on it