Lot 51824 – Greece – Large Hermes Heads: 1861-1895 Old-time balance collection mounted on 309 album pages

Greece – Large Hermes Heads: 1861-1895 Old-time balance collection mounted on 309 album pages and housed in six Simplex spring back albums and one Lighthouse album, originally part of the Maximus collection formed by Ron Lee.

Collection is presented in the eight sections and described as follows: Volume I – Paris Print on 26 pages showing a fine array of twenty-seven King George I 20L essays in a variety of shades and colours, proofs & colour trials from 1L to 80L with 20L double impressions, issued stamps with unused and used example of almost all values from 1L to 80L, some useful cancels including some used abroad and three covers. Volume II – First & Second Athens Print on 44 pages showing fine and coarse print, unused and used with shades, varieties including yellow wash on face or on back with the very rare 40L value, some pairs and blocks with 80L block of six used in Constantinople etc., plus five covers and one newspaper usage. Volume III – Clean Plates, Special Printing and 1871-1872 Printing on 41 pages some unused with especially the rare 1870 20L unused, mostly used, shades and cancels, showing some useful control figure varieties including 20L double control figure, Volume IV- 1880-1887 Printings on 45 pages with the usual unused, used, multiples with many strips and blocks, a fine array of Specimen ovpts on 1L, 2L and 5L values etc. Volume V- 1862-67 Printing on 34 pages showing values from 10L to 80L with unused, used, shades, control number varieties including « 01 » for 10, unrecorded 20L UNUSED « 80 » instead of « 20 » with partial doubling, 80L with inverted « 8 », cancels and five covers etc. Volume VI- 1872-75 & 1876-66 New Value Printings on 50 pages showing values from 1L to 40L with unused including rare 5L, 20L three singles, used, shades, multiples with blocks of four, control number varieties including « 01 » for 10 in singles and a pair, « 0 » for 10 in pair with normal, « 110 » for 10, 20L with raised « 0 », keyhole variety on 20L and 40L plus 20L showing inverted keyhole, cancels and nine covers etc. Volume VII- 1875-80 Cream Paper Printings on 43 pages showing values from 1L to 40L with unused including 10L with transparent impression, used, shades, multiples with blocks of four and six, varieties including « 0 » for 10 in singles, « 00 » for 10 in singles, « 110 » for 10, 20L double figures, 20L spaced figures, keyhole variety normal and inverted on 20L, « 0 » & « 2 » transposed, « 02 » instead of 20, cancels and two covers etc. The last volume VIII is not from the same collection, presented on 28 album pages showing all the printings for each value from 1L to 80L presented together, knowledgeably written up in German in the form of small pencil notations, plus a fine array of Small Heads included at the end.

A truly wonderful collection being the work of a dedicated collector, an excellent basis for studying the wonderful Large Hermes Head issues and an amazing opportunity (100’s)