Postal history and postage stamps of the Free State of Ikaria
The Free State of Ikaria in the eastern Aegean Sea was until July 17th . / July 30, 1912 greg. Part of the Ottoman Empire and connected to its postal service . An independent postal service, organized by the island's board of directors, existed from July to November 1912. After that, the Greek military administration took over the postal service, using locally produced temporary overprints on Greek original stamps as well as those supplied from Athens. After Ikaria officially became part of Greece in June 1913, the Greek Post took over the postal service for the island and has been using Greek postage stamps ever since.
Use of a special cancellation stamp
In the first three months between the establishment of the Free State on July 31 and the issue of the first own stamps on October 21, 1912, the Turkish stamps on Ikaria remained valid, although they were canceled with a newly created rubber hand stamp. This round stamp with a diameter of 40 mm shows an isosceles cross in the center (as on the state flag ), surrounded by the inscription ΤΑΧΥΔΡΟΜΕΙΟΝ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑΣ ΙΚΑΡΙΑΣ ( Post of the Free State of Ikaria ).
Free State Postage Stamps
On October 8th, July / October 21, 1912 greg. the & at the print Grundmann Co came Athens in lithography stamps made to the post office counter. There are eight values with a uniform design, which shows a medallion with the head of Hermes looking to the left in front of a Doric column portal. The following values were output:
- 2 lepta orange
- 5 Lepta blue-green
- 10 Lepta pink
- 25 Lepta ultramarine
- 50 lepta purple
- 1 drachma black-brown
- 2 drachmas dark pink
- 5 drachmas black slate
Postage stamps of the Greek occupation
During the First Balkan War , Greek troops occupied the islands on November 4th jul. / November 17, 1912 greg. . At the end of January 1913, a series of Greek postage stamps from the 1911 and 1913 issues went up for sale for just three days, with a vertical hand stamp overprint. This local, roughly executed print shows the lettering ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΙΟΚΗΣΙΣ ( Greek administration ). Such overprints were also used at the same time by the Greek post offices in the areas of the Ottoman Empire occupied in the First Balkan War, but these overprints were carefully made using the letterpress process. The series consists of seven values:
- 1 lepton green, Hermes head to the right of the 1913 issue, original stamp made using the lithographic process
- 2 Lepta rosa, messenger of the gods Iris , intaglio print - edition 1911
- 2 Lepta rosa, messenger of the gods Iris, lithograph edition 1913
- 3 Lepta red, Hermes head to the right, intaglio edition 1911
- 3 Lepta red, Hermes head to the right, lithograph edition 1913
- 5 Lepta green, Hermes ties his sandals, lithograph edition 1913
- 10 Lepta rosa, Hermeskopf to the right of the 1913 lithograph edition
As early as February 1913, the stamps made in Athens for the occupied territories in the Ottoman Empire were sold at the post offices and after the formal annexation of Ikaria in June 1913, ordinary Greek stamps were used.
In the Michel catalogs the stamps of the Free State are listed under Icaria .
literature
- Wolfgang Baldus: Philatelic Witnesses: Stamps of Revolutions . Album Publishing Company, Raleigh 2002, ISBN 1-885184-09-3 , pp. 96-97 .
- Michel catalog: Europe . Schwaneberger Verlag, Munich 1957, p. 662 .