Large Hermes Heads - Printings and Shades
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. The large Hermes head stamp of Greece from the Paris issue (1861) is recognised as one of the most successful in classical philately, both for its aesthetics and for the quality of its printing. It was printed for more than 20 years, from 1861 to 1882, and was in circulation for 25 years, until 1886. After an initial print run of 1,345,000 stamps of the first 7 values in Paris in 1861 , the typographic plates were sent to Athens and the first local print runs began at the end of October 1861. The Greek printers did not have the experience of their French colleagues, as the new kingdom of Greece was emerging from the obscurantism of 3 centuries of Ottoman rule, so the quality of the stamps printed in Athens was far from that of the Paris print ones... In addition, the stamps were printed in small quantities, which multiplied the number of emissions. The most advanced philatelic studies count more than twenty different printings ... The multitude of issues, as well as the very broad spectrum of colours of each of the values of all these issues, makes the classification of stamps with the large Hermes head particularly difficult.
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.
Louis Fanchini