The Russian post offices in Crete were established by

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

in the area of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

it occupied as part of the joint occupying force that arrived in 1898. Russia issued

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

s for its district of

Rethymno Rethymno ( el, Ρέθυμνο, , also ''Rethimno'', ''Rethymnon'', ''Réthymnon'', and ''Rhíthymnos'') is a city in Greece on the island of Crete. It is the capital of Rethymno regional unit, and has a population of more than 30,000 inhabitants ...

(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

handstamp A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit. ...

ing 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 Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...

trident A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other mari ...

. They came in three values, one and two metallik and one grosion (equivalent to four metallik or one piastre), 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. It is a forged stamp with a forged control mark and a forged postmark. The Cretan government issued its own stamps on 1 March 1900; see

postage stamps and postal history of Crete This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Crete. Ottoman stamps Ottoman stamps were used in Crete until 1898 and franked Letters are known since 1871. First stamps and first post offices of the independent postal service ...

References and sources

;References * * * * ;Sources * Scott catalogue * Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
AskPhil – Glossary of Stamp Collecting Terms

{{PostalhistoryEurope

Cretan State Philately of Greece 1899 establishments in Europe Establishments in the Cretan State

See also

References and sources