1.0 Stamps

The Greek Post Office (ELTA) decided to copy what Australia did, and issue an "Instant" digital print stamp for every Olympic medal winner. In fact the design is VERY similar to the Australian issues. Like Australia, at a later date, offset copies were also printed of medal winner stamps. This idea proved a great success in Greece, and the general public were the ones out there buying these issues for patriotic reasons etc. Only a small % of those will ever re-enter the stamp market. The controversial stamp was issued to honor Leonidas Sampanis, the Bronze Medal winner in weightlifting in the 62 kilo weight class. Sampanis won his medal on Monday 16 August and the stamps were on sparing sale in limited offices starting Tuesday August 17. Sampanis later failed his drug test (twice) and on Sunday 22 August the IOC stripped him of his medal. Consequently, on Sunday August 22, ELTA ordered that all remaining stamps be taken off sale nationally and immediately returned to their central office and NONE were to be sold. I bought one of these sheets in 2004 from a local dealer, and paid $500 for it - that seems more than a little above the odds when you look at what they are fetching on sites like Ebay. Comes with copies of the articles in Stamp News from the time for reference