Crete Stamps Postmarks Postal History

Let's leave the issue dates for a while and visit Ierapetra. In order to imagine the area around " the southernmost town of Europe" in the 1970ies see https://cretepostalhistory.blogspot.com/2021/05/a-forgotten-world.html The town itself is dusty, the time seems to run very slowly in this mixture of "High Noon" and "Alexis Zorbas". In the two little habour tavernas -  one "for the tourists" and one for the old men of the town - we got fresh fish from  the local fishermen. The known Postal History of Ierapetra begins 100 years earlier - Crete belongs to the Ottoman Empire - with one gem of Cretan Philately. The Pictures and the following description of the cover by Mr. A. Galinos are found in a special catalogue of the 366. Heinrich Koehler Auction "Griechische Gebiete Die Sammlung Johann Ulrich Schmitt" Hierapetra 1871: "YERAPETRA" black hexagonal postmark in Old-Turkish, tying a 20pa 1868 (perforated 13¼) on entire fol...

  Statement: The  values 1 Dr., 2 Dr. and 5 Dr. of the first set with black overprint can be divided in two issues (or the issue and a reprint); the second issue ( = the reprint) can be dated January/February 1901  ( Catalogues "Karamitsos" and Vlastos ) and can be identified by the  look of the overprint. "Karamitsos" even lists the so-called re-issues with own catalogue numbers. Facts: Very few of the three values occur with an overprint which is either very  faint (some overprinted letters might be nearly invisible) or has letters with diffuse typographic characters. In this cases the overprint color seems to be greyish. All the other stamps have clear bordered letters in black color which sometimes seems to be greyish and sometimes occurs in deep black. The left one of the following stamps is unused and  shows the usual look of the black overprint. The right one with a very faint XANIA  one circle postmark  shows an overprint that is tending t...