Tag: Greece stamp

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Crete, less than satisfied by a Danish/Greek Prince, the Cretans revolt with fake stamps

A Greek island rebels against Turk rule, sounds like a job for a Danish, no excuse me Greek Prince? I don’t think so and neither did the Cretans, but the Great Powers thought they knew better. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This is a fake stamp. Issued at the time of the Theriso revolt, and of no postal value and does not have any catalog value. Being therefore a revenue raiser. I would have expected less ostentation and more revolutionary zeal.

Crete was a Christian/Greek island that was long a part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1897 the Cretans revolted against the Turks. At this point the Great Powers stepped in with troop deployments ending Turk rule, though a suzerainty to the Ottomans was still paid. This occupation was under a High Commissioner, Prince George, the second son of the King of Greece and also a Prince of Denmark. He was a lot more Danish than Greek and so many Cretans were less than satisfied with the arrangement. Prince George was quite imperious, immediately demanding the Cretans build him a palace. Where after all is a Royal to lay his weary head. He also proved unable to get the Great Powers to agree to union with Greece. The Cretans rebelled against Prince George and a civil war was on. This was not what the Great Powers signed up for and they ended up paying the Cretans for the right to leave and to take Prince George with them. Greece sent another high commissioner, this time an actual Greek and then the Cretans unilaterally declared union with Greece.

Prince George ended up settling in France where he married Marie Bonaparte. She was perhaps more famous than he was. She was chronically unsatisfied sexually despite 2 children with allegedly homosexual Prince George, and many affairs with Princes, Prime Ministers and stablemasters. She began a formal study of the then important psychological issue of female  frigidity in conjunction with Sigmund Freud. She studied the sexual histories of several hundred women and the physical distance between their clitoris and vagina. She discovered the greater the distance the greater chance of frigidity. She published the findings under the pseudonym A. E. Narjani in a medical journal. If the distance between the organs was greater than 2.5 centimeters, orgasm was difficult to achieve. She thought herself having this condition, she twice attempted corrective surgery. Her frigidity  remained.

Princess Marie

Well my drink is empty and I am left shaking my head. I intended my articles on stamps to be wide ranging but I never thought I would get that far afield. I may need another drink. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

 

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Republic of Northern Epirus 1914, We are Greek and we sure don’t want to be Albanian

Sometimes countries suddenly pop up, most don’t last. One thing that could be counted on for such places at the beginning of the twentieth century was a declaration would be accompanied by a postage stamp issue. Perhaps before the declaration, and maybe even continuing after the lights went out. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp looks to my American eyes Czar era Russian. The writing did not look correct and thankfully my childhood Mincus World Wide album had an identification page that indicated Epirus and was Greek related. So what I was perceiving has Russian was more likely the stylings of the Orthodox Christian church, that Greece and Russia share.

Todays stamp is issue A9, a 40 Lepta stamp issued by a Epirus General fighting Italians and Albanians in the area in September 1914. The stamps show the two headed eagle on the coat of arms of the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus. The stamps of this issue, 15 of them in various denominations, are known as the Moschopolis issue, after the town captured by Epirus in June 1914 and turned over to the Greek army in November. After the turnover the stock of stamps of this issue were sent to Athens and eventually destroyed. Moschopolis is now the Albanian city of Voscopoj. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents mint. Though none of this issue is particularly valuable, cancelled versions are worth more. At the chaotic time of the stamp, there seemed to be more stamp printing than the actual mailing of letters.

Epirus was an ancient Greek state located in modern day northwest Greece and southern Albania. It was one of the last Greek states to fall to Rome in the years before Christ. The Roman campaigns there were the origin of term pyric victory. As the Ottoman empire fell back in the 19th century, Epirus found itself with a small majority of Orthodox Greeks and a large minority of Albanian Muslims.

The Great powers came to an arrangement that saw Epirus divided between Greece and Albania. Those of Greek heritage in Albania rebelled and declared independence as the Autonomous State of Northern Epirus. As their leader they chose a Greek former foreign minister named Georgios Christakis-Zografos. He was able to convince many countries to recognize the new state.

The 1914 independence declaration of Northern Epirus. Note the clergymen and the two headed Eagle from the stamp.

However the Albanians and their allies the Italians did not and started a war to reclaim the area. The Greek Army then intervened on the side of Northern Epirus and the state ended as Greece occupied the area. Georgios Christakis-Zografos returned to Greece and worked for a bank and again later as Greek Foreign Minister. The fortunes of war reversed in 1916 and the area fell to the Italians/Albanians.

1913 Albanian propaganda showing Mother Albania being attacked by a Greek leopard, a Montenegrin monkey, and a Serbian snake. She is exclaiming “GET AWAY FROM ME, BLOODSUCKING BEASTS!! Fun stuff!

World War II saw the area again a hotly contested battleground with the Greeks facing off against the Italians and Albanians before losing to the Germans who bailed out the Italians in the area in 1941. From 1944-1949 Epirus was the site of much fighting between the Greek government and Albanian supported Greek communists. Arguments over where the border should be in the area meant a state of war technically existed between Greece and Albania until 1987 when Greece renounced claims to the area. Post World War II the Albanian government had attempted to make the area more Albanian and atheistic. This was not entirely successful as many of Greek parentage fled to Greece at the end of the cold war. The Albanian communist regime had especially targeted people who shared the Christakis surname from the Epirus leader’s hometown as enemies of the state.

Well my drink is empty and I will drink some more commiserating with those who tackle the impossible task of drawing satisfactory borders in the Balkans. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Karki (Halki) Island 1912, Flying the Italian flag in the Aegean, strange isn’t it

A chain of islands called the Dodecanese fell to the Italians in the Italy-Turkey war of 1912. The question was what to do with them? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

These stamps are a little bit of a disappointment being bulk mail issues with just an overprint. One nice thing was that they list the islands individually, the islands only foray to date in stamps. The Italians managed to stay a bizarrely long 36 years, too bad they never got around to proper empire issues with the King’s portrait in the corner and the window into their exotic colony.

Todays stamp is issue A43, a two cent stamp issued by the then Italian Military Occupation of Karki Island in 1912. It was a ten stamp issue in different denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $7.25 unused. A double overstamp ups the value to $360.

The Dodecanese Islands, the largest Rhodes, sit very close off of Asia Minor but most of the people on the islands are Greek. At first the Italians just had a military occupation that did not bother much with civilians. There were even a Treaty of Ouchey agreeing to give them back to the Turks that was never enacted and later a Treaty of Sevres agreeing to hand them over to Greece. Neither was enacted as you don’t give things to war losers.

Things changed in the 1920s with Italy still in procession and a fascist government keen on Empire building. Cesare Marie De  Vecchi was appointed Viceroy and set out a program of Italianization. Schools began to teach in Italian. Italian settlers were invited in to farm previously unused land and as employees of the Italian military. Once there, they were encouraged to marry Greek girls. One obstacle was that the Greeks were Orthadox and the Italians Catholic. De Vecchi tried to finesse this by starting a separate Italian controlled denomination of the Orthadox Church for the Dodecanese.  Promising students from the islands were given scholarships to the University of Pisa in Italy.

To some extent this stuff worked as year after year went by and the Italians were still there. De Vecchi was promoted to something called the Grand Council of Fascism back in Rome. When the weather changed that was something that was no resume builder. Oddly he was first sentenced to death in absentia by the German backed Italian Social Republic for not doing enough to keep Mussolini in power. De Vecchi escaped to Argentina on a fake Paraguay passport. He was able to return to Italy in his last years though he was still a vocal fascist.

Cesare Maria De Vecchi

In 1943 the British hoped to take advantage of the chaos in Italy to take the Dodecanes. Lord George Jellicoe was parachuted onto Rhodes to try to convince the large Italian military presence to change sides. They hoped for airbases that could be used to bomb Axis targets in the Balkans from a shorter range. While he was there the Germans landed with full force. The Italians didn’t fight the Germans but about 75 percent demilitarized. Like De Vecchi, Jellicoe used the chaos to escape, though he didn’t need a Paraguay passport.  He was later the Leader of the House of Lords. The formal handover of the islands from Italy to Greece happened in 1948. A casino built by the Italians has proved quite popular.

Lord Jellicoe

The Greeks have not proven to be that great for Karki Island which they now call Halki. In the 1950s there was a mass migration of Greeks off the island setting up a Greek community in Tarpon Springs, Florida in the USA. The island is down to about 300 people.

Well my drink is empty. I will pour another to toast having a place to run to. Come again on Monday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Greece 1938. Maybe the ancient Minoans on Crete had it right. Why not display your skill and bravery by jumping over the bull instead of fighting him

The ancient people on the island of Crete were from the same strand of ancients as those in Greece. Thus it is understandable the Greeks in modern times look to the practices of Minoans as part of their own heritage. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The image on this stamp is taken from an old fresco in a Minoan era palace on Crete. That combined with 1930s poor country printing makes it less than clear what is happening. An acrobat has grabbed an angry bull by the horns who then by reflex jerks his head up violently. Using that force as leverage, the acrobat summersaults over the bull. The bull is not hurt by this.

Todays stamp is issue A69, a five Lepta stamp issued by Greece on November 1st, 1937. It was a 13 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used.

We talk a lot here of trading posts with an international flavor to them. Using postage stamps as a jumping off point usually puts us in the colonial or post colonial era. Here we get to go back to the Minoan culture on Crete as it existed circa 2000 BC. The trading going on was with the different peoples throughout the eastern Mediterranean Sea including Egypt and the Levant. The trading and mixing influenced both sides and left the Minoans well off. Elaborate palaces have been uncovered by archeologists over the last 200 years.

The name Minoan comes from a mythic King Minos on Crete. He was a concoction of nineteenth century British archeologists. As presented by the archeologists, the Minoans raised vegetables and ate lots of seafood. This healthy diet resulted in much longer life spans and thus contributed to the elaborate bronze age art the island is known for.

Bronze bulls head Minoan rhyton found in Zakros. A rhyton is drank from.

It is believed that Minoan culture came to a sudden end after an eruption of the Thera volcano around 1450 BC. There were also a string of earthquakes. By the beginning of the iron age around 1200BC, there was nothing left of the old culture on Crete. The language of the Minoans has not yet been able to be translated, so we do not know what kind of government they had. The high number of stone palaces is thought to mean the society had a hierarchy.

The Minoans were believed the first to practice bull fighting. There’s of course was much less violent than the now more famous Spanish style. It was practiced on Crete by both males and females. There was a second way where the the performer dives over the horns and then bounces off the bulls back. It is thought that the sport wasn’t dangerous for bull or jumper but that probably depends how the jumper lands and how quickly the bull comes for him. In modern times, bull jumping is still sometimes performed in France except they now use cows.

An ivory bull leaper figure found in Knossos. The bull it is believed he was pinned to was never found.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Minoan bull leaper. Showing strength, bravery, and graceful movement, it must have been a crowd pleaser. It also showed respect for the bull, who was often revered in ancient cultures for his raw power. Come again on Monday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Greece 1947, mourning King George II, the man whose most important tool was his suitcase

Many Balkan Kings were really from northern Europe, in the case of Greece, the King was Danish. So perhaps he was not ideal in providing  the stability and continuity of an ideal Royal family. Yet there was always the hope and so King George II kept his suitcase packed whether in country or during his frequent exiles. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I have always admired Royal death stamps with their perforated white area redone with a black frame suitable for mourning. This is perhaps the worst version of such a stamp I have seen. George by all accounts a dower and aloof man. This is reflected in the stamps portrait. The black frame done as a cheap overprint and then the bad situation of 1947 Greece is further shown by overprinting a 50 Drachma new value on a not old I Drachma stamp. Gosh George, we know you were gone a lot, but couldn’t you have left your people in a better place?

Todays stamp is issue A67, a 50 Drachma stamp issued by the Kingdom of Greece on April 15, 1947. It was a 3 stamp death issue for King George II who had died April 1st. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents unused. A mistaken double overprint of the new denomination would up the value to $72.50. The original 1 Drachma version of the stamp from when he was alive is worth 25 cents.

Greece in the early 20th century suffered numerous changes in government. Charles II’s Grandfather was assassinated and soon after assuming the Throne his Father was forced into exile in favor of Charles’s younger brother. This was as preparation to becoming a Republic which then did not happen. Charles received military training in Germany and married German Romanian Princess Elisabeth. After World War I, Charles was invited to come back to Greece and restore the natural Royal Line. Charles and Elisabeth came back but by 1923 they were again back into exile. At first they went to Bucharest where Elisabeth was happy with her family but Charles was bored. He moved to London, taking a house in Belgravia that he shared with his mistress Joyce.

Between 1923 and 1935, Greece had 23 governments. There was increasing support for a return of the Monarchy. When Queen Consort Elisabeth heard of this, she did not desire a return to Greece. Among her lovers was a banker named Alexandru who had made her rich. Without telling George in London what she was up to, Elisabeth divorced George in a Bucharest court on the grounds of his abandoning the family home. He returned to Greece alone and childless but back on the Throne.

Greece was closely divided between communists and the far right. Middle of the road political figures could not gain traction. George supported a far right figure named Metaxas as Prime Minister who ruled as a Dictator but left George on the Throne. During WWII, Greece tried to side with the Allies but was quickly overrun by Germany. George was again off to exile in his beloved London. The Allied victory was complicated for Greece. Britain did not want a return of the prewar far right regime and so did not want George to return to Greece. They forced him to appoint a Cleric as Regent who then appointed a moderate left government. This was not going to do as the numerous communists were in open violent revolt. A 1946 plebiscite that the left boycotted saw a return of a hard right government with a concomitant invitation for George to return to Greece and resume his reign. His now ex wife Elisabeth was financially supporting the communist insurgency. He returned to find his Palace looted and died shortly after returning. His younger brother Paul succeeded him.

Queen Consort Elisabeth continued her interesting life after the divorce. Sensing change coming she became involved romantically with several prominent communists in Romania. The young King of Romania referred to her as his “Red” aunt. She was not allowed to stay in communist Romania but was given several days to pack and a private train to leave on. She much enjoyed looting her own Palaces. She left room on her train for Alexandru. However once in the south of France, she took up with a much younger would be artist named Marc. Unable to secure for him a title so that they could marry, she instead adopted him three months before her death in 1956 at age 62. Marc was 32.

Elisabeth as a young Romanian Princess

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Bulgaria 1913, that brief moment when the Balkan Wars looked good for Bulgaria

Even an overprint of an older stamp issue can take a little time. This overprint was issued to celebrate the lands gained in the (not well named) First Balkan War of 1912. By the time the stamp was in the post offices, Bulgaria had started a 2nd Balkan War to take more of Mecedonia, but ended losing more than it ever gained. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp shows the traditional old capital of Bulgaria, Tarnovo (now called Great Tarnovo). This ties the gains achieved in the First Balkan War of Slavs and Greeks against the Ottoman Empire back to the no doubt glorious exploits of the 14th Century Bulgarian Empire. The Greek and Serb allies had not divvied up Macedonia  as previously agreed on so Bulgaria’s German King Ferdinand ordered a surprise attack on both Serbia and Greece with the goal of Thessalonica, the now second largest city in Greece. This happened suddenly while the postal service was just getting to talking up the last war.

Todays stamp is issue A22, a 3 Stotinki stamp issued by the Kingdom of Bulgaria on August 6th, 1913. It was a seven stamp issues of overprints on an earlier issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2 unused. This is 5 times the value of the original version of the stamp, as the overprint did not have much of a shelf life.

A federation of Slavs and Greeks with the backing of Russia met with great success against the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War. The Ottoman offensive against Serbia stalled and the Greeks and Bulgarians as allies were able to clear the Ottomans from Macedonia. The Greek navy had successfully prevented Ottoman reinforcements being shipped in by sea from elsewhere in the empire. Millions of Turk Muslims streamed out of Europe where they had been for centuries to a Turkey they did not know. The Balkans being a rough place, the Serbs and Greeks had a backroom deal that cut Bulgaria out of some of the spoils including the important city of Thessalonica. Turkey could be rough itself, the general in charge of the losing effort, General Nazim Pasha, was assassinated by a group calling itself the committee of union and progress. Nazim Pasha’s family then formed its own committee of annoyed relatives of Nazim Pasha and assassinated the Pasha in charge of the progress comitee.

King Ferdinand, without consulting the Bulgarian government or Russia ordered surprise attacks on Serbia and Greece, both attacks quickly bogged down although the Bulgarians were able to hold off the Serb counter attack. The Greek counterattack was more difficult. There was a bloody battle at the then ethnically Bulgarian city of Kilkis in Macedonia that the Greeks won and then ethnically cleansed brutally. Further progress toward the Bulgarian capital of Sophia got bogged down. Then Romania and even the Ottomans joined the attack and Bulgarian King Ferdinand was forced to accept harsh Greek peace terms that lost land to Greece, Romania and even the Ottomans.

Serbian poster claiming it was them instead of the Greeks that spanked Bulgarian King Ferdinand

The Russians were especially hard hit by the Second Balkan War. They felt forced to side with far off unconnected Serbia and with it lost Slavic Bulgaria in a Slavic Balkan Federation where they would have had more influence in uniting the Slavic people. Darn those German Kings pretending to speak for Slavs.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what number the First and Second Balkan wars would be in an accurate count? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Cyprus 2007, Takism wins over Enosis but the Greeks move forward

The Greek government on Cyprus has worldwide recognition but the island is still divided with 40 percent of the island an unrecognized Turkish state. A pleasant surprise is that the rivalry has not completely prevented the island from moving forward. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp issue shows a collection of neoclassic buildings on the Greek part of Cyprus. Left unstated on the stamps, is that most of the buildings featured are from the period when the whole of Cyprus was a British colony. Museums and libraries and important government buildings, built by the British and for everyone on the island. A legacy hard to replace but not adequately recognized as to how they happened. The British, who did their best to cope with the diversity that neither side wants to admit and as a result after the British left after repeated Greek attacks the island divided.

Todays stamp is issue A408, a 30 cent stamp issued by Cyprus on October 2nd,2007. This stamp featured the National Gallery of Contemporary Art and was part of a 8 stamp issue in various denominations. The stamp’s denomination is shown in both Cyprus and Euro cents as it was issued during the Greek part of the island switching to the Euro currency. The Greek part of Cyprus achieved membership in the EU separate from Greece in 2002. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 unused.

The British gave up on Cyprus in 1960. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/07/the-british-in-cyprus-again-having-to-stand-between/  . Greeks expressed a desire for Enosis, which was union with Greece. However there was a large Turkish minority that was facing ethnic cleansing if the Greek wishes were allowed to occur. The Greeks began attacking British targets in the island while the British tried to come up with some power sharing arraignment so they could leave. Given that situation, it is a wonder that any of the architecture on this series of stamps survived. The Turks on the island promoted Taksim, a division of the island. After independence there was a small scale guerilla war between Greeks and Turks. In the early 70s, Greece was under a right wing military government that supported a coup, that ended power sharing arrangements toward integration with Greece.

The Greeks did not fully consider the arrangements the British had left for them. If one side tried to force an end to power sharing, the other or Britain  had the right to intervene. A few days later, to Greek shock, the Turkish Army invaded and occupied 40 percent of the island. Taksim won over Enosis. The island required much ethnic cleansing to get everyone on their side of the line and Nicosia is now the only divided capital of Europe.

Greek Cyprus has done fairly well in recent years. The ancient sites and good weather attract tourists. The island as also become an offshore banking center mainly catering to Russian oligarchs. The wealth as seen some of the buildings on the stamps be replaced. The building on the stamp still houses a small art gallery but the art scene in Nicosia as a new dominant player. The A. G. Leventis gallery opened in 2014 in a large building resembling a prison with white marble walls. Though the gallery claims to feature local art, it also features a Paris collection, based on what the museum’s namesake kept in his Paris apartment. I get it, he’s rich and wants everyone to know it. My city also features a newer big gallery in white marble with some rich guy’s name on it. It is probably too late for both places to be recolonized by the British and have them build a tasteful gallery actually aimed at protecting and explaining the heritage.

Well my drink is empty and perhaps I should stop while I an ahead. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Greece 1969, the regime of the Coronels remembers the world war differently

In 1941, Greece had a right wing government and a King but an alliance with Britain. Thus they were invaded by Germany, quickly conquered and the King fled. Most opposition to the Germans was communist. When the Germans decided to pull out the Royal government came back and had a big fight not with fascists but with communists. what an embarrassing mess but leave it to then Greek junta to invoke Athena and make everything smell peachy. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I really admire the confidence of the then Greek government in invoking ancient Athena in recognizing Greece’s war experience. The ancient warrior Queen rising up to rid Greece of Italians, Germans, Bulgarians, fascists, communist, and whoever else passed through. Well all of the above were there and then they weren’t, so why not give the credit to Athena. What a miracle!

Todays stamp is issue A275, a 4 Drachma stamp issued by the Kingdom of Greece on October 12th, 1969. It was a three stamp issue celebrating the 25th anniversary of the liberation of Greece from the Germans, Italians, and Bulgarians. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Greece had intended neutrality in World War II. The government was right wing with ties to Germany but the King was an Anglophile. When Italy annexed Albania in 1939 and threatened Greece, Britain offered to guarantee Greek borders. Italy was quickly beaten back but then the Germans invaded and little resistance was offered. The King was evacuated to Crete and then Egypt and formed a government in exile. Resistance to the Germans was almost entirely communist that had little contact with the government in exile.

When the Germans decided to withdraw intact from Greece in 1944 it got very interesting. The king appointed a national unity government under center left politician Geogios Papandreou. When they arrived with British help they found what an obstacle the Communists partisans were. German puppet Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis had formed Greek units to fight the partisans and it was these units that stood up beside the British to fight the Communists. Unlike under the German occupation, there were street battles in Athens. Even during this fighting, Papandreou resigned from the new government because of the involvement of the fascists and Rallis was put in jail for collaborating with the fascists. A mess and Greece was plagued by civil war for years afterward. Britain had to fight against unexpected foes to retain influence in Greece.

Rallis despite his collaboration was a fairly conventional center right politician. His father was Prime Minister in an earlier time ant though Rallis died in jail his son became another center right Prime Minister in the 1980s. I mentioned the Papandreou resigned when things got tough in 1944. That does not mean he did not have several more terms as Prime Minister. In 1967 there was a coup in Greece lead by right wing Coronels of the Army. Papandreou was opposed to this and placed under house arrest. He soon died in a similar captivity to Rallis. His grandson in the 2000s was also a center left Prime Minister.

Well my drink is empty and I am sure my British readers most have all would have wished Greek neutrality had been honored. That might have still left them to Stalin in 1945, but I bet they would have been a big pain in his neck either way. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Greece commemorates the first modern 1896 Olympics by invoking Pallas Athene

Something old is new again. Both Greece and the Olympics. So in hope that the present will also be great, why not cover all the bases by invoking the blessing of the Warrior Queen defender of Athens. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The 19th century is very early for commemorative stamps. Great Britain, the inventor of the postage stamp did not have one till 1913. The fact that Greece had a large and diverse set of commemoratives for the Olympics in Athens in 1896 shows how important the event was. The stamps show the modern stadium and athletes, but also call back to the ancient games. It was a good early effort. It probably did not fail to occur to the Greek postal authorities that the country would be playing host to many, and an attractive set of stamps would be a good memento, all the revenue of which would pass directly to the government. The earlier stamps of Greece had all featured not their German Kings but a Royal style medallion profile of  ancient Greek God Hermes

Todays stamp is issue A5, a 20 Lepta stamp issued by Greece in 1896. The stamp shows a vase displaying Pallas Athene. It was part of a 12 stamp issue in various denominations issued in celebration of the 1896 Olympics held in Athens. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $8.25.

The inspiration of the ancient Greek Olympics was still widespread in the nineteenth century. Pseudo Olympic games were held between British public schools beginning around 1850 as a way for exersize and to teach constructive competition. This inspired French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin. He was depressed by the defeat of France by Germany in 1870 at a time when Britain was on a roll. In his mind he equated the relative success with the athletic training the British aristocracy had received in the public schools of their youth. He began a program of lobbying to have a broad program of physical education.

Coubertin was not having much luck in his efforts. He hit upon the stunt of conducting a modern Olympic games tied to the 1900 Paris Exposition and formed an international committee to organize it in 1894. It soon became clear that 1900 was too far off to sustain momentum and so 1896 was chosen for the first games. After a flirtation with a London location, the committee picked Athens as the first site. 14 nations sent 241 athletes to compete in 43 events. No women competed as Coubertin thought it impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect. Already in 1896 there was pushback to this. A Greek woman named Stamata Revithi ran the same marathon as the men the next day. Her time was over an hour longer than the medalists but she unsuccessfully petitioned to have her participation recorded. At the time, there was only a silver medal for first and a bronze for second, no gold medals.  The Panathenaic Stadium is on the site of an ancient Athens stadium and is made completely of marble. The 19th century Greek government refurbished it and it still stands having also been used for some events of the 2004 Olympics.

Panathenaic Stadium

Pallas Athene was the warrior princess palace guardian of the city of Athens in Greek mythology. Athena was born as a result of a union of Zeus and Métis the Goddess of crafty thought. Zeus later worried that the union was not a good match and so swallowed Métis. She had already conceived though. Zeus then had terrible headaches and his doctors took an axe to his forehead. Doing so revealed Athena, fully formed and even armed. Images of Athena were later taken to Rome and are even thought to be the partial basis for later images of the Virgin Mary, Britannia, and even Catherine II of Russia. Freud put forth a theory that her image was centered around her scary motherly genitals.

Well my drink is empty and I think I will abstain from any more to avoid headaches and thoughts of Freud. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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The British in Cyprus, again having to stand between

How do big countries let themselves be dragged into these things. Cyprus contains many Greeks and many Turks. The route to peace is clearly for them to learn how to get along or partition. Instead the brilliant answer is to expensively send a disinterested army. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp today is from the period in Cyprus history when, I think to the surprise of all, it was a crown colony of Great Britain. So in it’s way it is a very typical late colonial period stamp offering. There is His Majesty King George VI looking down on a view of the colony. These stamps both try to convey to locals that they are an important part of the empire and secondarily to the many British Empire stamp collectors that Cyprus would be an interesting place to visit. I don’t think the stamp did much to further either of these goals, but I respect the effort.

Todays stamp is issue A36, a one quarter pence stamp issued by the crown colony of Cyprus in 1939. It displayed the ruins of the Vouni Palace. It was part of a 16 stamp issue showing historical sites around Cyprus. According to the Scott catalog the stamp  is worth 60 cents either mint or used. The stamp to look out for in this issue is the 1 pound portrait of King George VI that is worth $45 in mint condition.

Cyprus had belonged to the Ottoman Empire for many years. As with much of the empire it was multi ethnic, but with a majority of ethnic Greeks. When Greece won it’s independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, there was a movement to unite Cyprus with Greece. This movement was brutally put down by the Ottomans. The brutality included 486 beheadings including 4 Greek Orthodox bishops in the central square of Nicosia. In 1877, the Ottomans faired badly in a war with Russia and made a secret side deal with the British giving them control of Cyprus. This kept the island from Greek control.

World War I saw the British at war with the Ottoman empire and they formalized control over Cyprus by declaring it a crown colony. Successor state Turkey formally disclaimed any interest in Cyprus after World War I. The Greeks on the island were plotting to expel the British and to achieve political union with Greece. By the 1950s there was a full military uprising. Britain managed to give Cyprus independence with a power sharing arrangement with Greeks and Turks on the island. This lasted until 1975 when there was a Greek militant coup which threw out the coalition government. The Turkish army invaded 6 days later and occupied 40 % of the island. Many on the island had to relocate to get on their side of the line and the island remains to this day partitioned. To this day Britain retains a small peace keeping military force on the island. I could find no accounting for how much getting roped into Cyprus cost Great Britain since 1877.

The Vouni Palace was built about 500 BC by Phoenicians that were then under the influence of the Persian Empire. It sits on a mountain from which it can control the then Greek city of Kyrenia. Kyrenia and the ruins of Vouni Palace now are located in the Turk part of the island and the town is now completely Turk after the ethnic cleansing of the mid 1970s. The site was extensively dug out by a Swedish archeological team in the 1920s.

Well my drink is empty so it is time to open up the discussion in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Further reading on a similar British Quagmire. https://the-philatelist.com/2017/12/05/mosque-of-omar-the-mandate-to-try-to-stand-between/.