Chimarra

The Chimarra issue was a local provisional for an independent northern Epirus, issued in February 1914. Chimarra, a coastal town on the Ionian Sea, is now Himara in southern Albania.

Four values were issued with a doubleheaded eagle and skull and crossbones and inscribed '''ΕΛΛ. ΑYΤΟΝ. ΗΠΕΙΡΟΣ'''. These were handstamped with a common die with values and an oval seal handstamped control added.

Genuine stamps are borderline rarities, while forgeries are abundant as are forged covers. Reprints, probably more like forgeries since they were produced later, were made by one Spetsiotis.

 File:Epirus Chimarra reprint.jpg|A Spetsiotis reprint/forgery. 

Original vs. forgeries
The original is on a thin translucent paper where the Spetsiotis product is on thin paper that is not translucent. Those are still considered to have some value. In the genuine and the Spetsiotis productions:
 * "ΕΛΛ." runs downward.
 * "ΟΣ" of "ΗΠΕΙΡΟΣ" runs upward.
 * in the value handstamp portion, "Π" and "T" touch, often looking like one character.
 * the oval seal is typically a dry print and is handstruck, not printed.
 * covers addressed to Carilao Kongakis in French, Italian or Greek are all forgeries.

[[Category:C]]