A Ship in the Canal

New Entries

Today I have some Greek series I bought recently ...before starting to show these stamps I want to focus a little in one of my favorite stamps from Greece... I am talking of the 'Corinth Canal' design, issued for the first time in 1927 in the 1st "Landscape" Series.. first I had one stamp of each value ,but with time more of them appeared, with new shades... I began to stock them and classify them correctly , so I have now about 25 of these stamps... a Year or so ago, I bought a small lot with several Overprints and surcharges, one of the 'delicacies' of the Greek Menu... among them came these 8 stamps from this design , that had the particularity of showing all the 3 values and the 3 overprints and surcharges, and 2 shades...

The first issue of this design in 1927 is known as the "Mcdonald Issue" because the plates were manufactured by the Printing Company "Thomas Mcdonald Ltd"...the 2nd issue (only in the 50l value..) is known as "De La Rue issue" for the same reasons...

As You can see it is an interesting small group...the 5l and 80l stamps are from the 1927 "Mcdonald Issue".. other thing that is very clear to the observer is that the quality of printing is not linear... in the same 1927 printing , we have the 5l stamps, generally with a good printing and the 80l with good and bad printings (the one I present is one of the worst i have...) The printing was in charge of a Greek Company named "Aspiotis Bros" .

I have here 3 stamps from 50l that could be from the 1st or 2nd issues... to distinguish them we must look carefully to the front of the ship...

 [Left] 1927 "McDonald Issue" : the 2 anchors ( right and left) are visible

[Right] 1931/1935 "Se La Rue Issue" : the right Anchor is clearly visible but the left one is invisible...

I must highlight that this distinction should be made "at naked eye" or with a magnifying glass...

All of the designs used both in the 1st and 2nd issues have points that allow us to distinguish them...

Let us now talk about the Overprints... The Surcharge of the 5l stamp (5l+10l)[ 1943] , is for  a Anti Tuberculosis Fund and the 50l overprints are Red Cross stamps [1937] ... one of the overprints is in Red and the other one in Green...

Many more could be said about this design.. I will keep trying to stock some more stamps , just to find new shades..

Let us start now to present the other stamps...

A beautiful series with plates,engraving and [Recess] printing by Bradbury Wilkinson...This series is commonly known as "Aerospresso Issue" , due to its connection with the firm "Aeroespresso Italiana"... according to a contract between this firm and the Greek government , 3 issues of Air Mail stamps were planned , starting in 1926 with the "Patakonia issue" ... the 2nd series was the famous "Zeppelin Issue" also in 1933.. the contract states that these stamps were to be used in letters from Greece to Italy and Turkey... Unfortunately, the series is incomplete , with the 50D stamp, the most expensive, missing...

1933 "Aeroespresso Issue" (7) [Recess (Bradbury Wilkinson & Co., Ltd)] Sc(C8,...,C14)

Now we are in the 60's with a series about the effort of Electrifying all the country with the construction of Dam's and Power plants...some of these key buildings for the Power management are represented in these stamps... this and I think all the other series from the 60's I have to show are work of Anastasios Alevizos , better known as Tassos... from 1954 to 1967 he designed most part of the Greek stamps, becoming one of the most prolific stamp designers of all time...

1962 "Electrification" (7) [Des (A. Tassos)][Litho] Sc(728,...,734)

This is another of the works of Tassos , representing several of the most famous Greek Painters... The Artists are respectively : 1)Theodore Vryzakis 2) Nicephorus Lytras 3) Constantine Volonakis 4) Nicolas Gysis 5) George Jacovidis ... there is a small variety of the first stamp of the series , depending on having or not the last letter of the upper labels... if the letter is nonexistent then we have an increase in the value of the stamp... 

1966 "Greek Painters" (5) [Des (A. Tassos)][Litho] Sc(840,...,844)

series nicely engraved and [Recess] printed by De La Rue... the series presents us the founder of the Greek National Bank, Jean Gabriel Eynard and the first director George Stavros... A view from the Headquarters of the Bank and a Bank Note are represented in the two large format stamps... it was again Tassos that designed this series and for the examples I have shoen until now we can see that he was an extremely versatile Artist, designing not only portraits, but also Landscapes, buildings, bank notes, etc...

1966 "125th Anniversary of the Bank of Greece" (4) [Des (A. Tassos)][Recess (De La Rue)] Sc(845,...,848)

This series commemorates the birth of the first daughter of the Greek Royal Couple , King Constantine II and Queen Anne Marie... it is a good Engraving and printing work by De La Rue , and the design is again by Tassos , but this time I have a small remark to make about the face of King Constantine II... the smile is not well designed and gave a 'unnatural' look to the picture...

1966 "Princess Alexia's First Birth Anniversary" (3) [Des (A. Tassos)][Recess (De La Rue)] Sc(876,...,878)

I have also some isolated stamps from the Olympics 1896, that I continue to buy whenever they appear... They still have the blue card ,because , as isolated stamps,they receive a different treatment.(I immediately proceed with their classification)... well, the only stamp that is really a new entry in the collection is the 40l and the first 1D stamp is really in bad condition but it came as an extra...

I will end this post saying that if you want to know more about Greek stamps, feel free to visit  the Karamitsos site where You can buy the great catalog «Hellas» (3 volumes) .. it is one the best catalogs I have , and I have lots of them..!

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