File:Stamp 1947 Greece MiNr0558 pm B002.jpg

Stamp of Greece; 1947; definitive stamp of the series "Return of the Dodecan Islands - Dodecanean Union with Greece" = Return from a British Military Protectate to the Kingdom of Greece according to the "Peace Treaty with Italy" from Paris, 10 February 1947.; In this Treaty was Italy obliged among others to give return all his "Islands in the Aegean Sea" to the Kingdom of Greece (under hefty protests of the Turkey, which never acknowledged this treaty) and to pay 105,000,000 USD as reparation to Greece.; The stamp motive shows an antique drawing of the "Colossus of Rhodes", how it was described as one (of seven) world wonders of the antique world by Herodot.; The "Colossus of Rhodes" was a 30 m high bronze statue on the harbour entrance of Rhodes.: The statue was totally miscalculated and among others much to heavy for a durability.; This statue was completed in 292 BC after 12 years of building time in the Hellenistic style of the Greek antique, but was fallen and destroyed again by an earthquake in 227/226 BC.; The depiction is originated from the work of Herodot with indication to Homer (if Homer was really an single artist, than he has lived around 928 BC in Ionia - his name means litterally "Spouse").; The sculpture in London is a Roman copy of younger date (2nd century), although it existing a similar looking marble figure by the Austrian sculptor Josef Muhr from the 19th century.; stamp postmarked
Stamp: Michel: No. 558; Yvert & Tellier: No. 561; Scott: No. 515; AFA: No. 575
Color: yellow grey to olive brown
Watermark: Greece No. 2 (multiple crowns, slant, upwards to right)
Nominal value: 1000 Drx (Drachmes)