First let's have a look at the Finnish card. It was sent by Maija, a university student from Helsinki. The card shows the Finnish national Museum. Quite an impressive looking building.
It was constructed between 1905 and 1910 and opened to the public in 1916. With its granite facade and decoration, the building is one of Finland's most significant national-romantic works of architecture. Maija used a 2003 stamp, which according to her, glows in the dark. I certainly believe her, but I will confirm this later tonight. It is 1 of 5 values in a souvenir sheet featuring lighthouses and safety at sea. 
Just a wonderful stamp and I certainly wouldn't mind having the souvenir sheet in my collection. Thanks Maija.The Netherlands card shows the Molen De Kat, located in Zaadam, Netherlands. It is a working windmill that one can visit and learn how paint is made.
Only the storehouse is left from the original De Kat, so in 1960 the top part of another mill was laid on the foundation. The mill is again grinding materials such as chalk to make pigments for paint in the traditional time honoured way. The stamp on the left is from 1975 and was issued to celebrate Amsterdam's 700th anniversary. The smaller stamp on the right was issued in 2004 and is 1 of a set of 2, with an I shape Phoshor bar. 
If any reader knows the meaning of the red lettered stamping just below the left stamp, leave a comment.That is it for today. Comments ?
1 comment:
Hi Glenn
The red stamping means that the total value of the stamps has been checked. I've seen this before on Dutch letters, apparently they put this on letters that are franked with 'old' stamps that do not have euro values yet.
As you see, the left stamp is not one in euro, so post office must check if total value is sufficient to send the letter to Canada (or any other country :)).
Regards
Thomas
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