Russian post offices in Crete

Russian post offices in Crete

The Russian post offices in Crete were established by Russia in the area of Crete it occupied as part of the joint occupying force that arrived in 1898.

Russia issued postage stamps for its district of Rethymno(n) in 1899. However, the postal service operated for only a very short period, from May to July.

A first set of four stamps was produced by handstamping two designs, both based on the imperial Russian double eagle emblem. One design was inscribed with colorless Greek letters in colored scrolls; the one metallik value was handstamped in green, while the two metallik was issued first in rose-red shades and then in black. The other design used colored Latin letters on a white background, and appeared only as a one metallik value in blue.

Regularly-printed stamps came out later in 1899, printed by Grundman & Stangel of Athens, using a design based on Poseidon's trident. They came in three values, one and two metallik and one grosion (equivalent to four metallik or two piastres), and seven colors (orange, green, yellow, rose, lilac, blue, and black). A third set was issued using a variation of this design, adding five-pointed stars in the frame around the trident, and was printed in blue, rose, green, and lilac.

The stamps also received a violet or blue control mark, in the form of a double eagle, before being issued. They are known without the control mark, and have been extensively
counterfeited as, for example, in the example shown in the picture above.

The Cretan government issued its own stamps on 1 March 1900; see postage stamps and postal history of Crete.

References

* cite book
first = Rienk M.
last = Feenstra
title = Crete: Postal History, Postage and Revenue Stamps, Coins & Banknotes
year = 2001
id = ISBN 960-85275-6-2
pages = p. 65-90
location = Athens
publisher = Collectio
* cite book
first = A.
last = Karamitsos
title = Hellas 2004: stamp catalog and postal history, Volume II
location = Thessaloniki
publisher = A. Karamitsos
year = 2004
id = ISBN 960-87500-6-7
pages = 234-238
* cite book
author = Vlastos
title = Vlastos 2005, Volume 3, Hellenic Territories
publisher = Orestes Vlastos
year = 2004
pages = 249-258
* Scott catalogue
* cite book
author = Wellsted; Rossiter; Flower
title = The Stamp Atlas
publisher = Macdonald
year = 1986
id = ISBN 0816013462
pages = 124-125

Sources

* Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
* [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/home.html Encyclopaedia of Postal History]
* Stuart Rossiter & John Flower: "The Stamp Atlas"


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