Theme : Stamps on Stamps (postal services related stamps) - 04

Letter boxes on stamps, they are double as interesting as they show stamp history on stamps.
Greek postal services issued a set of 4  (8) stamps on this topic, to commemorate 190 years of the founding of the Hellenic Post, by the first Governor of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias.
Underneath the letter boxes, we see, in greek capital letters : "190 χρόνια ελληνικά ταχυδρομεία";
which means as much as 190 years of Greek (Hellenic) post.

4 stamps printed in sheets of 5 x 5 stamps, perforation is 13,75 x 13,75
€ 0,10 - 500,000
€ 0.50 - 1,000,000
€ 0.72 - 500,000
€ 2.62 - 1,000,000

the 'regurar' stamps come in full colour:

A week later, the same stamps were issued in a sheetlet of 8 (2 of each), with another perforation 13,25 x 13,25. This sheetlet was printed by Cartor Security Printing
They come in a sheet of 4 - so each stamp twice.

sheet of 2 x 4 greec letter boxes

The letter boxes are printed in gold/bronze emobssed printing, and only 10,000 sheetlets were made.

detail of 4 Greek letter boxes

Collecting : my collection 03c

When you are an absolute beginner in stamp collecting, an absolute 'pro', or, as most of us somewhere between a small collector and a collecting lunatic, in all cases, a catalogue is mandatory.

But then ... which one to choose ?

A lot depends on what kind of collector you are...

Are you a collector of your own country alone ? Then better look for a catalogue of your own country.
The numbering system is unique for your country, and it will tell you lots of details about your stamps, variations, printing errors, plate numbers, ....
Some countries used to have colonies in the 18th till 20th century and they might be included in the catalogue.
I call them 'local' catalogues, and I will come to that later on.

Maybe you don't collect only your own country, but also the neighbouring countries. Or specific regions, like the Scandinavian countries, Balkan area, Benelux, South America, the Middle East...
Then you're better of with a world wide catalogue, and some are perfect for this type of collectors.
But 3 or 4 'local' catalogues could help you out as well.

Or you're a idealist and you collect everything that comes your way... then a world wide catalogue is mandatory, as not all countries have their own catalogues, and with over 200 countries and many dissapeared countries it's impossible to buy each individual catalogue, unless you're a trillionaire.

And maybe you're not bound to countrywise collecting, but you have a weakness for theme collections.
Then you have several items from several countries, but buying a world wide catalogue is too much information for what you really need.

So let's start with some 'local' catalogues.

Belgium

the Netherlands

Italy

Greece

Israel

Turkey

some latin american ones :

Argentina

Brazil

some asian ones :

P R Lao (1st ed.)

Japan

These are 'country' catalogues, I call them the 'local ones' ...

to be continued

Currency Today : Euro Common Design 01 c

Let me continue with the TOR coins.

13 countries participated in the first common design.
All together emitting 17 coins, as Germany has 5 different coins.

The countries are :
Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany (5) : see previous post

and Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.

Finland (Suomi)

Finlands coins are more rare then most other coins in this set. As Finland has no countries next to them that are using Euro coins as well, the finnish coins don't get spread that easily.

TOR Finland 2007

1. the finnish mint mark can be found in the outer circle of the coin.
  is the mint mark of the finnish mint


France

Together with german coins, french coins get spread widly all over Europe.
The french coin has two mint marks too?

TOR France 2007

1.  The cornucopia can also be seen on some coins of Luxemburg, but it's a french mint mark.

2. The hunting horn and waves is the master mint mark of H. Larivière.



Greece

Not all greek coins are made in Greece.
Some of them are minted in Spain, Finland or France.
In that case they bare the letter E (Spain), S(uomi - Finland) or F (France) in one of the stars.

TOR Greece 2007

1. the accantus leaf is the symbol of the Athens Mint

Italy

The last coin for now is the italian TOR coin.
Italy doesn't put 'treaty' of Rome, but 'treaties' of Rome, as there was more then one agreement that was signed on this event on March 25, 1957.

TOR Italy 2007

1. treaties of Rome
2. "R" mint mark of Rome

Theme : Angels 03

Angels symbolising victory, or victory symbolised by an angel, is quite common.
At least on older stamps. Nowadays angels are not often depicted anymore on stamps.
Due to secularisation of the world, or because we don't think of angels in times of peace?

I found more nice examples of winged figures (angels I suppose) on stamps that refer to war, or victory after a war :

two greek airmail stamps, angel figure with laurel wreath

In my previous article i posted some Syrian stamps with the Greek godess Nike, without wings.
Her I have a similar stamp, this time with a winged person, holding a laurel wreath, and presumingly a tambourin at the left foot.

Syria (see angels 02) - winged person with laurel wreath

Another war scene, from Lithuania. In the background a winged person, holding a laurel wreath over the fighting soldiers.

Angel on a Lithuanian stamp

to be continued...

Microstates : 15 Turkish Cyprus

The Turkish Republic of Northern-Cyprus is the northern part of the island Cyprus, in the Mediterranian Sea.

On the mainly island, the majority of the population was and is Greek.
In the early 1970's, the (Greek) habitants of the island were seeking 'enosis', unifining with Greece.
This idea was supported by the greek gouvernment at that time, but against the will of the Turkish minority in the northern part of the island.

In 1974 the Turks occupied the northern part of the country and in 1983 the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus declared itself independent.
Only Turkey recognised the new state, and although Bangladesh and Pakistan initially did the same, they redraw their support after pressiure from the United States.

As for now, the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus is thus only recognised by Turkey, and not by any other country. In this view, the stamps aren 't recognised either, and can be called 'locals', or 'labels for political use'.

However, this summer, a friend of mine went to Cyprus and visited both sides of the island.
He even sent me a postcard from the Northern part (I guess it was sent over Turkey) and the postcard reached my place, cancelled without any problems.
So this means the stamps are valid for postal use.

Some stamps :

My postcard :

Postcard from TRNC

Cancel Turkish Northern Cyprus

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 12

More booklets on 'Volkswagen Beetle', sure, why not.

I wrote in part '07' of this theme, about Greek stamps on the theme of legendary cars.
The same stamps appear as well in a prestige booklet.
Here, each stamp is only once in the 15 paged booklet.
All other pages are dedicated in Greek and in English to each of the 5 legendary cars (including Ford T, Citroën 2CV and of course the Volkswagen Beetle).
A very nice issue, or a smart way to let collectors pay too much for what they get in return?
As many collectors, especially those who collect specific themes, you don't want to miss any item that is related to your collection, so I bought the booklet as well.

booklet - front

detail page in English

the 5 stamps at the end of the booklet

mind the detail in the picture left under

back side of the booklet

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 07

Greek postal services dedicated in 2005 a set of stamp to 'old cars'.
Maybe 'old' is not the right word, since a mini cooper is also in the set.
It's dedicated to 'famous' cars, let's say.
Of course the good old 'Volkswagen Beetle' had to be in the set as well.
The particular stamp has the second highest value of the set ( € 2,25).

The stamp shows a 'split window' beetle, the first type of commercialised Volkswagens.
The nice thing is, it's a real picture of a real existing Beetle, and so it looks like in excellent condition.
It has an open roof, so it's already a luxurious model.
In detail, the splitted window can clearly be seen.

This is a very nice set and especially a very niceVolkswagen Beetle stamp.
Thanks, Greece,
ευχαριστίες !