The punches and typographic plates for the first Greek stamp, the large Hermes head, were produced in Paris in 1861 and 1876 by the Graveur Général des Monnaies de France, Désiré-Albert Barre.
Article written by Louis Fanchini from Académie de Philatélie, AEP and FPSL
Stavros Andreadis‘ primary aim with this book is to help collectors recognise the different shades of stamps with the large Hermes head and to classify them by issue according to the classification updated by AIEP expert Michael Tseriotis and used in the Hellas catalogue published by the Karamitsos company of Thessaloniki since the beginning of the century.
The large-format book (26 cm X 36 cm) is printed on high-quality 150-gram paper (Garda Pat Kiara).
For each colour shade of all the values in the 12 issues of the Hellas catalogue, up to 5 high-resolution photographs (350 lpi), front & back, are offered in large format (X 1.5). A total of 1,144 different shades are listed in this 160-page book. The text is in Greek and English. It is bound and printed in gold on a linen cover and is available from Argyris Karamitsos‘ online shop for €170, including postage (www.karamitsos.com/eshop.php).
The author, Stavros Andreadis, is a renowned Greek collector who has been passionate about large Hermes head stamps for decades. His collection of large Hermes heads (“The Kassandra collection“) has won numerous awards at international exhibitions. After being nominated for the International Grand Prix in Washington 2006 and Lisbon 2010 as well as the Grand Prix d’Honneur in New York 2016, his collection won the World Championship at Israel 2018. His exhibition has been published twice in the Edition d’Or series: No. 28 in 2011 and No. 60 in 2021.
This book of exceptional quality, both in terms of its content and the care taken in its production, will enable both beginners and seasoned collectors to classify their large Hermès heads without a second thought. There is no doubt that this marvellous book will become the bible for lovers of the large Hermes head and will make it much easier for new collectors to get to grips with this fantastic collection.
