Neat! And there I was worried that I found something relatively uninteresting. Thank you very much for all the info. In return, more photos! They're a bit too large to attach directly to the post so here's a link to the directory: http://tathe.org/helvetia/ I included a picture of the cover nameplate for you.

I found it from a flea market, I paid nine euros (12 USD) for it, it actually felt a bit high but I liked the details and I had never seen anything like it before. Also the fact that it's from Switzerland intrigued me. It's in good condition although it needs a bit of cleaning (dot key doesn't return all the way) and the ribbon system tends to have excess slack, although it works ok when typing. It's a nice machine to type with, the board has large rubber feet and overall the machine has firm feel.

Now that it turned out to be more interesting than all the generic Japanese portables, it'll certainly stay in my collection. Even if I were to sell it, there are not that much interest towards typewriters in Finland and our keyboard makes our machines unwanted elsewhere in the world. The typeface would also seem to be the same generic typeface most typewriters in Finland share.

This is my first typewriter that has X before A etc. I have say it feels a bit strange to write since the keys are "out of alignment".

(Just a meaningless note: The plate on the underboard says O.y. Platina A.b. Helsinki Helsingfors. Helsinki is our capital (Helsingfors är samma på svenska (Helsingfors is same in Sweden)) and Oy/Ab means joint-stock company. I haven't been able to find information about a company called Platina, which is probably because it's a horrible name for a company (Platinum). I guess that's another project to find information about for another day.)

You should consider having your next vacation here in Finland. I haven't seen a portable typewriter in a flea market with a price tag higher than ten euros (13 USD). On the other hand I haven't seen any desktop typewriters at flea markets at all... but who knows, I have only raided a limited number of flea markets in just three cities, and I have left more typewriters at the markets than I have brought home.

Right now I know a place that has probably about ten typewriters if not more and they're priced by their case size... smaller ones cost six euros and larger ones ten euros. Last time I didn't have much to check the typewriters but there was at least two neat portable Olympias. I'm excited to go back sometime next week. Especially because I got a job for the last weeks before school continues so I may dare to buy something. At least I could take some pictures and share the wonder of gold mine with all of you in the forum.

Just for fun, I checked what it would cost to send a typewriter sized packet into Canada and best price I could find was 62,5 euros (85 CAD). It's a shame it's that costly, although understandable too.

// Arabic typewriter sounds cool. I wish I get to see one someday. Another a bit more special (from my point of view at least) typewriter I'm dying to get my hands on is a typewriter with fractur typeface... but for that I probably have to seek from abroad and it'll surely end up being expensive.

Last edited by tatte (24-7-2013 16:13:53)

Most of the typewriters in my "gold mine" turned out to have plastic bodies, of which I'm not interested. There also was a bit of traffic so I barely even dared to check all the cases. However there was a few more interesting typewriters.



I'm not really consider buying either one, the Halda looks fancy but it's not the kind of desktop typewriter I'm looking for, and neither is the Remington on the left. They're still both good looking machines (if you look past their current condition) so if someone knows something about them just by looking at them, I'd really like to hear. The Remington is really a shame, I'd get 20% discount so it'd only cost 36 euros (48 USD) but I'll rather keep looking for a Remington desktop model. Besides, I didn't see a case for the Remington, I'm pretty sure they have thrown it away. 

Third metal bodied typewriter was an Olympia Monica, however it's paint looked ruined (like someone left it in sunshine for ages, or a smoker had licked it for years, or it was simply the ugliest colour I have ever seen). Unfortunately I didn't take a pic of it.

Maybe people found out that heavy, sturdy Halda's are effective when thrown at any animal or other creature that try to attack the writer, and once the attacker is killed the writer can just pick up the typewriter and continue typing. :D

(I'm sorry if you find jokes about your wildlife untasteful. It's just.. up here we have no poisonous spiders and only one even barely poisonous snake.)