Crete Stamps Postmarks Postal History

If you look at the Crete chapter in the international stamp catalogues, you will notice, that the official administration issued not only postal stamps but also Postage Due stamps and Official Stamps. Most of these three types of stamps on the  market are genuine. Usually in the catalogues they are followed by two sets of stamps issued 1905 by the so called "Theris(s)on Rebels" or "Insurgents" and sometimes a third set that belongs to the "Theris(s)on Rebels" or "Insurgents" but were never issued. Often the crete chapter ends with the issues of the british (1898/99) and the russian (1899) occupation forces.  Estimated 90 % of the "Therison" issue, the british and the russian stanps on the market are forgeries. So the collector of unused stamps better look at some catalogue subchapters with stamps issued in crete by the governments of Austria,  France and Italy. . The low values there are normally genuine. The collector of used stamps be...

  You will be surprised about the countless possibilities to collect stamps refering to the cretan postal history. One surprise might be, that there is an own chapter about Crete in  the international stamp catalogues. It begins with this 1 Lepton stamp showing Hermes: That chapter covers the period March 1900 to December 1912. Historical the period is sometimes called "The independent Cretan State", but it wasn"t a real State although it has its own administration. So here it is called "Independent Crete". This is the best start for collecting "Crete". You will find some beautiful stamps and learn about the greek mythology. If you prefer these aspects you have to collect unused stamps. Otherwise I strongly recommend postal used stamps, because there is so much to detect, see the following chapters. In that short period occured special things like overprints, bisects and perfins and there are connections with revenues, postage dues and official stamps...

 1973  The south coast of Crete between Ierapetra and Ferma One camping site, two bungalows for tourists, no hotel, a lonesome beach Agia Fotia a little paradise The Cretan People riding on donkeys to reach their little fields in the rocky coastal plain And sharing their tomatoes with the unknown tourists  West of Ierapetra Moni Arvi with the special "Hippie smoke" hanging under the banana trees In Iraklion was a stamp dealer .... What cretan postal treasures were in his store? Probably it might have been possible to speak with a person, who was  born in the the 1880ties and could tell about the last years of Crete as part of the ottoman empire, the naval blockade, the occupation by 4 foreign military forces, indepedent Crete, the union with Greece and both World Wars.