Al letter from the Hellenic Post Philatelic Service about stamps:

Dear friends.

I am pleased and proud to inform you that in May 2008, in partnership
with the Holy Community of Agion Oros (Mount Athos), Hellenic Post
will begin issuing official sets of independent Agion Oros stamps.

Our purpose in creating these stamps is to raise the global profile
of the holy monasteries and their history, architecture, rare
manuscripts, relics, holy vessels and way of life, as well as the
flora and fauna and natural beauty of the region. Our hope is that
people all over the world will be inspired to find out more about
Agion Oros and the social, political, cultural and religious life of
its inhabitants.

The beauty and uniqueness of official Agion Oros stamps, with their
superb design and wide variety of depictions, will satisfy even the
most demanding of stamp collectors, and will allow the public to share
in the spirituality and distinctiveness of the region.

Between four and five sets of stamps will be issued every year in
limited numbers, wirh depictions covering a single theme.

The five sets of stamps to be issued in 2008 will feature the twenty
monasteries of Agion Oros, with depictions based on woodcuts by
well-known engraver Giorgos Moschos held in the national Gallery. The
region will be represented through images such as a map of Mount Athos
by Rigas Feraios dating from the late eighteenth century, the church
of the Protaton, the Byzantine emperors Ioannis Tsimiskis and
Nikiforos Fokas, who granted Mount Athos its special privileges, and
the staff of the Protepistates (“First Monk”), a symbol of the
authority and unity of Agion Oros.

The Agion Oros stamps will be issued in limited numbers (not in
excess of 60,000 full sets each) and demand is expected to be high. We
therefore advise you to fill in the enclosed SUBSCRIPTION FORM and
return it in the envelope provided to the Philatelic Service as soon
as possible, because strict order of priority will be observed.

Official sets of Agion Oros stamps allow anyone to build up a rare
collection of stamps of great artistic merit, and to find out more
about the Arc of Orthodoxy, as Agion Oros is known.

Best regards,

Vassilios Loukas
General Manager
hv