25 Marka 1919, Estonia
| in Krause book | Number: 47a |
| Years of issue: | 25.08.1919 |
| Edition: | 5 000 000 |
| Signatures: | J. Kukk, J. Kiwisild |
| Serie: | 1919 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 25.08.1919 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 140 x 83 |
| Printer: | Tilgmann, Helsinki |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Horizontal waves.
Avers:
Women in traditional costumes on the harvested potatoes. On the right and left sides are two fir-trees.
Denominations in numerals are in top corners, centered in words.
Revers:
Fishermen pulling nets, fishing boats in the middle. Right and left - fish around denominations.
Comments:
Withdrawn from circulation: 01.03.1924
Banknote paper is made in Tervakoski, Finland.
The Finnish mill was founded in 1818. Housing five paper machines, this mill produces an annual capacity of over 100,000 tons of customized papers. In addition to thinprint papers, it also produce paper for tobacco-related products, release base paper, electrical insulation paper.
Designers: Teodor Ussisoo, Johan Theodor Björnström.
Teodor Ussisoo (February 27, 1878 Paide - September 26, 1959 Tallinn).
An Estonian pedagogue and furniture designer. Attended a district school between 1888-94 and a railway technical college in Tallinn between 1895 to 1898. In 1909 he graduated in furniture making in Leipzig, Germany, and in 1913 interior architecture at the Köthen Technical Art School. He worked as a school teacher in Tallinn and was appointed the head of the State Technical School in 1922. Ussisoo was responsible for the designs of the first Estonian kroons and postage stamps issued after the establishment of the Estonian republic in 1918. Ussisoo was arrested by the Soviet occupation authorities in 1949 and deported to Krasnoyarsk Krai and was released in 1956. His son Uno Ussisoo was an encyclopedist and translator.
Johan Theodor Björnström. The designer of Smith & Weaver stamps.
(Summary of an article by Elmar Ojaste in Eesti Filatelist #24-25, 1979).
For the competition of designs for a new stamp issue, arranged by the Estonian Postal Administration in 1921, an entry of six designs with a code-name "Eesti Post", showing various occupations and farming activities was received. After consideration by the jury, the design showing a blacksmith was awarded the first prize. The mentioned code-name belonged to the Finnish artist J. T. Björnström.
He worked at this time for Printing Works Ltd in Helsinki. Earlier he had met there, in connection of printing and design of Estonian paper currency, an Estonian artist Theodor Ussisoo. The latter had suggested him to participate in the mentioned competition. From the proposed entries - blacksmith and weaver became the motifs for the final long-running Estonian definitive stamps issue (1922 - 1928).
Björnström was born May 21, 1890, in Jorois, district Mikkeli in Finland. His parents soon moved to Viipuri, where his father worked as a blacksmith in the local railway depot. Young Johan started his artistic studies in Viipuri«s school of Drawing "Friend of Art". He won scholarship and studied 1913 - 1914 in the Munich Academy of Art in Germany and later in "The Athenaeum" - Academy of Art in Helsinki. In 1927 Björnström became advertising manager for the Finnish Co-op Consumers Association and worked with them until his retirement in 1957. He died in Helsinki on June 10, 1959.
Björnström was known and recognized mainly as graphic and applied artist, but he also had a reputation as a painter. He exhibited in Viipuri 1909 and in Helsinki 1916. His most preferred motifs of landscapes were from Koli and Pielisjärvi.
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