Europa 2018

Sent : 2018.10.03

Received : 2018.10.06

Thanks a lot Athina !

19th Anniversary of Hellenic Military Academy & Biological Life Seen Through Microscopes

Sent : 2018.08.26 (?)

Received : 2018.08.29

Thanks a lot George !

International Women's day & C. Binos (Figures of Greek Philately)

Hatzionidis send me the other day some panini stickers for a swap of football and cycling collections.


He was so kind to include some used stamps :

And even some MNH stamps as well :

Thanks a lot !

FDC 2018.06.15, 190th Anniversary of the Hellenic Military Academy

Thanks Sylvia for sending me this FDC, and for the information on the academy !!!

The Hellenic Military Academy was founded in Nafplion on the 1st of July 1828 by Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first head of state of independent Greece.

Nafplion was the capital of Greece then.

The motto of the Military Academy is : "If you learn to obey/be ruled, others will obey you/or you will leanr to rule"

Registerd Cover : The Twelve Months in Folk Art series 2014

Received a while ago a registered cover from Greece with two stamps from the series issued in 2014 "The Twelve Months in Folk Art".

The sender used 5 stamps depicting september and one stamp showing  january.

Details of the series can be found here.

Flags Of the World : Greece

Sent : 2018.07.04

Received : 2018.07.00

Tourism series stamp representing"Rhodos" issued on 2014-08-08

Thanks a lot Drahomira !

Pre-euro stamps still valid?

The answer is no, all pre-eurostamps are not usable anymore for postage in Greece.

So this means all stamps before 2002, the year the euro has been introduced in Greece, are not valid anymore.

Thanks a lot for your info Sylvia!

Joint Issue with Russia

On the site of Rusmarka is mentioned for October 4th, 2018 a joint issue with Greece :

Joint Issue of the Russian Federation and the Hellenic Republic.
Year of Tourism.
Dmitrov Kremlin

2 stamps, sheet with illustrated margins of 8-15 stamps and a coupon

This issue was foreseen for September 6th but postponed till October 4th.

Would anyone have more info about this joint issue?

Which leads me to another question : does anyone know if the philatelic issue plan of Greece is available online?

Thanks in advance for any information.

1937-1938 joint issue between Greece, Roumania, Turkey and Jougoslavia to commemorate the Balkan Entente*

* not from my collection

Hermes Heads at ParisPhilex

At ParisPhilex which took place from June 7th till June 10th, l'Académie de la Philatélie was notably present with a exposition of rare philatelic items and some were related to our loved Hermes Heads.

First of all there was this presentation :

Matrix

test punch

Indeed a test punch of the ony medaillon, turned to the right and a matrix obtained from the test punch, and since it's a negatif, the head is turned to the left. These were engraved by Désiré-Albert Barre.

Matrix

detail of the matrix

detail of the test punch

test punch

A second piece of high interest was the electrotype in pure copper of the 30 lepta of the Big Hermes Head, with 150 images of the stamp.

It was conceived in 1875 by the Charles Derriey enterprise under the supervision of Désiré-Albert Barre. A complete electrotype contains 300 images and was built of two separate parts of 150.

As said in french : a unique piece !

Due to the lighting present in the big hall and in the exposition room it was not easy to take a picture rendering the design clear and well.

I present all pictures I took and let you appreciate them in fonction of the ligthing.

Thanks a lot Mr. Louis Fanchini for making your acquaintance during the stampshow and showing me these philatelic treasures !

My collection

not my collection ;-)

So how about that collection of mine concerning greek stamps.

Well I have no problem to admit it's a very tiny collection.

As a kid I collected (worldwide) stamps on occasion, so when they came around I kept them.

Not much greek stamps came my way.

Last time when I counted my collection, which took place on october 27th, 1998, I had a total of 48 greek (used) stamps.

Then for 15 years I didn't actively sort out my stamps, put them in stockbooks etc, just put them in boxes, which I opened again in 2012.

part of my collection

I started swapping actively and my collection of greek stamps grew calmly, all the more since I was not focusing especially on greek stamps, just hoping to get some popping up in swaps.

A few years back (must be around 2006), I received a stockbook which contained (amongst others) a collection (about 70 stamps) of greek stamps (thank you Henny !)

So how did the collection evolve?

It counts as of today a total amount of 538 stamps. (without the Hermes stamps showed in earlier post)

the older part of my collection

But, how many greek stamps are issued as of today?

Colnect mentions 4.006 stamps.

My Hellas 2018 catalog ending in 2017 has as last stampnumber 2.985.

Keijo of Stamp Collecting Blog mentions 3.093 stamps (till 2016).

So depending on the total amount of stamps one retains I have about 13,42 % (Colnect) , 18,02 % (Hellas catalog) or 17,39 % (Stamp Collecting Blog).

So how about that difference? Might be a subject for a blogpost the coming weeks, who knows.

more of my collection

A postcard from Greece

Always happy to receive a postcard from Greece, especially when it shows the white walls and blue sea and the greek cats.

Sent : 2018.05.25 (?)

Received : 2018.06.02

Thanks a lot Katia !

Stamp used on the postcard is Hellas n° 2829, autoadhesive stamp issued in July 2014, from a booklet "Visit Santorini" without price indication, but corresponding to the lowest overseas weight category...

https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/503699-Santorini-Tourism-Greece

CV is 3,00 € in used condition. (Hellas 2018)

Europa / CEPT series

Trying to get some order in my collection, I started to range them by series in my stockbook.

Which makes me realise I urgently need a few stockbooks for amongst others my greek stamps.

Anyway, since the new greek Europa stamps were issued recently, I thought it a good idea to give it a start with that series.

When I was a kid I didn't like this series very much, the design was not very fancy, the colours were not very attractive.

Not the most attractive stamps in my humble opinion

But by getting in contact with worldwide swappers and rediscovering this series I started to like this (Europa) series more and more and nowadays I try to get yearly the maximum of stamps postally used on a cover.

I mostly keep the covers as such, sometimes I soak off the stamps and add them to the collection (and I  always scan the cover in question).

You can follow my collection of Europa Covers here.

But for my collection of greek Europa/CEPT stamps I only will take in account those which were postally used and soaked from a cover.

So what do we have?

1st row
Europa CEPT 1972 "Communication" : Hellas n° 1222
Europa CEPT 1974 "Works of Art- sculpture" : Hellas n°1283 & n° 1282

2nd row :
Europa CEPT 1981 "Traditional dances" : Hellas n° 1561
Europa CEPT 2017 "Castles" : Hellas n° 2976 (Castle of Palamidi)

3rd row 
Europa CEPT 2013 "The Postman Van" : Hellas n° 2752 & n° 2753

That issue of 1974 is very nice by the way, just love these sculptures!

So that gives the mighty number of 7 stamps, well almost nothing of course.


I know where I can start looking for...

Have a nice weekend.

About pre-euro stamps and sticker stamps

Just wondering if old (that is pre-euro) stamps are still valid to use as postage on actual covers, postcards, ...

In France, Belgium etc. one can still find pre-euro stamps used as postage which makes for fine covers given the amount of stamps with low face value that have to be used.

So how about Greece?

The Pontus Lyre, 1975 Hellas n° 1333

This stamp is one of the very few mint pre-euro stamps I have in my small collection of greek stamps and is part of the Musical instrument series issued in 1975. (of which I only seem to have this one it seems)

Another item which popped up while sorting out and soaking recently arrived greek stamps.

I have a problem with some to get them off from paper and wondered if it would be sticker stamps. Up till now I didn't encounter any sticker stamps or at least none that would stick to the paper.

But I have real trouble with soaking these ones off :

Are these sticker stamps?

Any of my greek visitors might have the answer?

Thanks in advance.

A cover from Greece

Sent : 2018.05.18

Received : 2018.05.22

Stamps used on the cover are the following ones : (from right to left)

1 € stamp issued in 2017 to commemorate the Battle of Elektriki, in which greek resistance movement ELSA prevented the destruction of the electric factory situated in Keratsini, and which provided Athens and Pireaus with elctricity. The battle took place in Octobre 1944.
http://www.elta.gr/Business/eshop/tabid/558/CategoryID/237/List/1/catpageindex/11/Level/a/ProductID/1220/language/en-US/Default.aspx

https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/718939-Solon_of_Athens-Seven_wise_men_of_Antiquity-Greece

https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/744778-Charilis_Binos_1909-1978-Figures_of_Greek_Philately-Greece

https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/744777-Alexandros_Argyropoulos_1883-1962-Figures_of_Greek_Philately-Greece

https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/744780-Georgios_Papastephanou-Provatakis_1890-1978-Figures_of_Greek_Philately-Greece

https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/665075-Origanum_Dictamus-Blooming_herbs_of_Greece-Greece

Thanks a lot Sylvia !

Literature On Greek Postal History (Part 3)

Some very detailed study on the "Hermes" head stamp written by Mr. Louis Fanchini, member of the Academie de Philatélie in France is available here (in french) and here (in english).

Check out as well the numerous articles in the bibliograpical section.

Some of Mr. Fanchini's conferences for the Académie and related to Greek Postal History are available online as well here. (french only)

Enjoy the read!

By the way Mr. Fanchini will give a conference on the Large Hermes Heads during Paris Philex on June 7th.

FDC 1982.11.08, National Resistance series

I received this FDC earlier on this week from Sylvia.

It's related to the National Resistance series issued in 1982, more specifically November 8th 1982.

The first day cancellation took place in Athens.

It features 4 stamps of this series : (from left to right)

- the resistance fighters in Thrace,

- the resistance fighters of Crete,

- the 25th. March 1942 Student's demonstration,

- the execution of Greek activists by the Nazi's on May 1st, 1944/ Struggle for Northern Greece

4 more stamps were issued but are not present on this FDC.

All 8 stamps depict a stand of resistance against Nazi Germany over whole Greece : Thrace, Crete, Athens etc....

What does the Hellas catalog has to add on these stamps?

First of all these stamps are categorised under the numbers 1611 - 1618.

All stamps were issued in different quantities. The Kessariani stamp was issued on 7.200.000 copies while the Struggle for Northern Greece stamp (as labeled in the Hellas catalog) was only issued on 837.967 copies. A rather odd number, aren't they normally round numbers? Must pay more attention to that.

The stamps were also issued on 2 different minisheets of 4 stamps each, as shown here and here.

The Hellas catalog doesn't give any details about perforations. Strange for a national catalog would I  think. *

A little note on the drawing and text on the left of the cover.

The date : 1821-1941 refers to the start of the Greek revolution / fight for independence in 1821 and the invasion by Nazi Germany of Greece in 1941.

Under the very detailed and find drawing where a soldier of 1821 encourages a soldier in 1941 to keep on fighting is a text which means the following :
"ΧΑΙΡΕ Ω ΧΑΙΡΕ ΛΕΥΤΕΡΙΑ"
 "HAIL, O, HAIL LIBERTY"

This refers to the greek national anthem, the Hymn to Liberty, composed by Dionysios Solomos.

The final text on the left of the cover indicates its issued by the Hellenic Post Office and that it's well ... a First Day Cover.

Thanks so much Sylvia for this FDC and for the detailed translation and information on greek history!!!

-----------
*Avez-vous une idée Nicolas pourqoui le catalogue Hellas ne donne aucune indication sur la dentelure des timbres?

Hermes Heads

They arrived, more about it later on when I have had to verify what they are exactly.

But needless to say a very nice addition of my collection of old greek stamps (which was not existing before this ;-))

Comments welcome.

Hellas 2018 catalogue

The Hellas catalogue issued by A. Karamitsos edition 2018, arrived last week friday.

I just had a fast look at them but it seems the old classic section is real detailed and well explained.

Now I'm ready to go;-) only have to find time.

It's great to know that the greek editor of stamps catalogue realises that collectors are stressed because of the daunting tasks they are up too.

I'm tempted to reserve a holiday in the Sani resort already, anyway the publicity changes from the usual more classic (read boring) publicity in / on the french catalogues.

Literature on Greek Postal History (Part 2)

I checked Stampboards and found some posts dedicated on greek philately.

One concerns an identification of a cancelation :
http://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=60966&hilit=greece

Another concerns a stamps for prostitutes?
http://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=29235&hilit=greece

The last one is the most interesting one as it's related to perforation varieties for the 1990 Prefecture definitives series :
http://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=29377&hilit=greece

Recommended literature for this series !

My small collection of the Prefecture Stamps issued in 1990

Enjoy the read!

Literature on Greek Postal History (Part 1)

Besides the bibliographical works mentioned by my fellow blogger Nicolas on his (french) blog called "Philatélie Hellénique", as well as his own blogposts which are real helpful and very instructive, a beginner like me always looks around the net what kind of (specialised) literature might be available to help cultivate once knowledge of Greek Stamps.

You have a nice introduction on Greek Postal History at Wikipedia.

But of course Jim Jackson of the Big Blue 1840-1940 blog has written three detailed articles on Greek Postal history.

The first one written on June 14th 2012 is dedicated to the Hermes heads series :
http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.fr/2012/06/greece-hermes-heads.html

Hardly a week later Jim wrote about the greek stamps issued between 1896 and 1940 :
http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.fr/2012/06/greece-1896-1940.html

And he finished (for the moment?) his quest into greek stamps with a an article on AirPost, Postage Due, Postal Tax and Balkan Wars :
http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.fr/2012/06/greece-air-post-postage-due-postal-tax.html

Check these articles out if you want to learn more about greek stamps.

Links will be posted on the left of the bog in the 'Philatelic Links' section.

Enjoy!

* Part 1 : the author hopes to be able to concentrate a maximum of articles on greek stamps on this blog, so more articles (when found and freely available on the net) on this subject might be posted in the (near) future.

Hercules Deeds - Hercules and Geryon

Ancient Greek Art stamps on Olympic Torch Flight

Olympic Torch Flight Cover from Athens to Australia canceled on November 2nd 1956.

The cover has two stamps :

Voyage of Dionyssos

                                                          

Bust of Homer

                                     
Both were issued on July 10th 1955 and are part of the Series of Ancient Greek Art.
 
Here are the stamps from the cover and the postmark in detail which is nice as such but misses a bit of ink.