Finns voted the atmospheric Wilderness Bridge stamp designed by Klaus Welp as the most beautiful stamp released in 2018. Juha Härkönen photographed the bridge on the stamp in a May sunset in Suomussalmi. The winning stamp received 13.7 percent of all cast votes.
Wilderness Bridge was also the runner-up in the bridge-themed EUROPA postage stamp competition organized by PostEurop. The PostEurop jury compared the stamp and its glowing colors to an impressionistic painting. “A stamp can be considered to be a success when it receives such praise from both Finnish customers and a European expert jury,” says Tommi Kantola, Design Manager at Posti.
The public could vote for Finland’s most beautiful stamp on Posti’s website or via postcard. In all, 31,683 votes were submitted by the end of 2018.
The second most beautiful stamp was a no-value indicator stamp designed by Stiina Hovi’s for the Enchantment of Lapland publication with 12.8 percent of the votes. It depicts an arctic sky full of glowing northern lights.
Stiina Hovi also designed the stamp that came in third in the competition depicting a photograph of swans caressing each other by Mikko Karjalainen. This stamp received 11.9 percent of all votes and it was published in a roll of stamps showcasing different symbols of Finnish nature.
Stamps depicting symbols of Finnish nature also won the competition’s positions 4–6. A stamp of a Finnish Spitz came in fourth, a stamp of a bear fifth and a stamp of a lily of the valley sixth.
The seventh position was awarded to another bridge stamp by Klaus Welp that was also published in the EUROPA series. The eighth and ninth positions were awarded to the Valentine’s Day stamps designed by Leena Raappana-Luiro and the tenth position to the nature symbol stamp of Stiina Hovi depicting a ladybug.
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