Crete
British occupation of Crete 1898
Queen Victoria
Essays are known of the 1d lilac overprinted (vertically, reading down on the 10 paras and up on the 20 paras)
(Image courtesy of Collectio auctions, Greece, sale June 2008)
The overprints read:
ΠΡΟΣ. ΤΑΧ
10 ΠΑΡΑΔΕΣ ΗΡΑΚΛEΙΟY
ΠΡΟΣ. ΤΑΧ
20 ΠΑΡΑΔΕΣ ΗΡΑΚΛEΙΟY
These items are also covered in GBOS Levant Study Paper 1 (Appendix). page last updated on: 6 November 2008, 11 August 2012 gbos: GB Overprints Society
and
(ΠPOΣΩPINON TAXYΔPOMEION ΗΡΑΚΛEΙΟY = "Provisional Postal Service of Herakleon") These were prepared as essays for the British Post Office in Crete following the international occupation, and only exist as a single of each on a card (The Overprinter 1982/2 p.26, ex Robson Lowe auction; reauctioned 2008 by Collectio). These are presumably authentic, but never issued. The card bears the intriguing message "Don't press too hard", which may have been an instruction not to press the handstamp too hard (it is rather blurred) rather than a request not to push for the issue if political niceties were sensitive. They were not discovered until 1977 inside an OHMS envelope.