Greek Stamps Belgian Or Athen's Printing

Scott's Catalogue lists these early Greek stamps as either Belgium Print (clear impression)or Athen's print (Poor impression) Here are two imperforated stamps that I hope show the difference between the two.
Is this right, or please correct me. Thank you

You have the two stamps correctly identified.

As someone getting into collecting Greek stamps, I am having difficulty identifying the stamps above. Although it may be a result of the difference in color or the quality of the scans (or my poor eyesight), the right stamp actually looks like a clearer impression to me. Could someone point out the elements that make the left a Belgian and the right an Athens?

Thank you for your help.

1886-88 Scott 71 50 L gray green
Belgium Print, Clear impression

Illustrated above is a clear Belgium impression. This is certain as the denomination and color only exists for this issue.

1889-95 Scott 90 1L black brown; Imperforate
Athens printing: Appears "rough"

The above stamp perhaps illustrates the "rough" nature of many of these printings, especially compared to the original Belgian prints. Keep in mind that a good portion of the "rough" nature has to do with the continued wear on the plates.

For more on this, see my "Hermes Head" post - written with the WW non specialist collector in mind.

http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.co...s-heads.html

I strongly recommend Jkjblue's article on the Greek Hermes heads. I used it about a year or so ago to identify my own Hermes heads and I found it to be very helpful.

Thanks Climber Steve- Coming from you, that is quite a compliment.

I looked at the post today (It was published three years ago), and it is a bit awkwardly presented, and not as smooth as the present posts (my standards have risen ), but it is helpful for pointing out the Hermes Heads that the WW generalist should feel comfortable in identifying. Fortunately, they include most of the lesser expensive and commonly occurring varieties.

Thanks all for the advice and that looks like a great blog, Jkjblue, with tons of fascinating information as well as a very informative read on the Hermes Heads.

jkjblue's blog is a wealth of information. One of the top ten (okay, top five, but it might go to his head) on the interwebz.

What will happen when Mr. Blue finishes writing up Zululand? I shudder to think.

Obviously he switches from blue to brown. :)

cjd is a wealth of information (His posts on SCF) himself, if I may be so bold.

Zululand may be the end of the alphabet (targeted for the end of 2016 at the current rate), but not the "end" of the blog.

My standards have changed, as the blog evolved, and I need to go back to the earlier posts and improve the format (images) and include more about a country's stamps and issues.




Bill Seymour- you are one of my inspirational mentors (although You probably don't know it. ), and I hope to meet you someday (PIPEX?, SEAPEX?).

As far as "Blue to Brown", I already have my "Brown"- the Deep Blue (Steiner) album.

(Sorry for the off-topic post.)

One of these days I'm going to have to figure out how to quote here...

I hope to make SEAPEX each year, and miss it each year. There seems to always be too much going on, or something I've just purchased that precludes funding a hotel room. PIPEX at least I make it every year, since I'm a committee member. :) Though since I do the Grandma's Attic booth I never have time to actually see the show. We've got Stampshow next year, along with the 100th anniversary of OSS, so I bet we can get together then!

I think the next step beyond browns or deep blues is what I do ... roll your own pages, with depth appropriate to the country. I'm active on Denmark and Norway right now while slowly accumulating Liechtenstein and Luxembourg for the future. I'm way behind on scanning though, still haven't scanned the rest of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, The Netherlands, Belgium or Romania.