FISHY

Oh go on then, let's have two more ships. I like these because they are modelled like sea creatures. The 3d50

depicts a 6th century BC vessel, and the 5d depicts

Argo, which I think is a wonderful ship! And thanks to Argo (named after its builder Argos) I came across this website on ancient Greek ships. A great read and it even has a reference to this stamp!

:-)

Adrian

REFRESHING

Ships on stamps is a very popular thematic theme. And rightly so, for there are endless possibilities and stories attached to ships on stamps. I always quite like sailing ships on stamps, they appeal very much to my romantic side, and that goes especially for older ships.

In 1958, Greece issued a set of ship stamps in honour of the Greek merchant navy. Six stamps in all, of which four depicted sailing ships. They were the first Greek stamps to be produced in four-colour printing. The 2d depicts a Byzantine galley,

but the 1d50 is my favourite:

It depicts the 1821 vessel called Nova. I tried to find some information on it (well, only for a couple of minutes, mind) but Nova is such a general word that I did not succeed in finding one website which might have anything to do with the ship. Oh well.....

:-)

Adrian

COLOURBLIND

We're doing a bit of royalty again and we're off to Greece for that today. In 1956 and 1957 two large definitive sets were issued with portraits of various Greek royalty. The sets are straightforward in that no major errors or varieties have been reported but they earn their places in our collections (well, in mine at least) because they are lovely recess-printed sets and because I have a well-publicised soft spot for royalty on stamps. This is my favourite stamp from the 1956 set.

It depicts Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark (1903-1997) who went on to marry Prince Paul of Yugoslavia.

The only strange thing about this set is that it was re-issued in 1957 but in different colours. Exactly the same set with the same values and designs, but all in a different colour!

And what makes it even stranger is that according to the Hellas catalogue, the decision to issue both sets was taken before the first set was issued. In other words, it was decided beforehand to issue two identical sets in different colours! Hmm... would there be any logical reason for that, or does it smell of tapping in on the philatelic profit market?

:-)

Adrian

OR IS IT?...

You may be forgiven for thinking that these are stamps from Crete.

And they are. And yet they are not. Confused?

Well, this is how it went: the original stamps are indeed from Crete. They were issued when Crete was still independent. But in 1913 Crete became part of Greece.

Now Greece lived through a period of monarchies, crowned democracies and various revolutions in those days. When in 1922 another revolution had the king abdicate once again, all the remaining stocks of Cretan stamps were overprinted with this "Revolution 1922" plus new value overprint. This, by the way, only happened in 1923.

So they are Greek, although they were Cretan.

So please rearrange your albums accordingly (if needs be, that is).

:-)

Adrian