How a find ends on a postage stamp...
New : the same image has been
reproduced recently also on a Guinean stamp. More on this later !
 |
Annabergite crystals from "Km 3", between Lavrion and Kamariza, Attika, Greece. Collected in 1978. North-Korean postage stamp. |
This story is just anecdotic, but it really happened. In 1978 my wife Ria and I enjoyed holidays in Greece, but we spent much more time on the old mine dumps than on the Acropolis.
In the extreme summer heat I collected several beautiful specimens of annabergite crystals in de vicinity of kilometer-marker 3 between Lavrion and Kamariza.
One year later I wrote an article on our trip, that was published jointly by "Gea", a Dutch mineralogical magazine, and "Geonieuws" (Belgium).
Piet Stemvers, the editor of Gea, made a beautiful picture of an annabergite specimen for the front cover.
A few months later Rupert Hochleitner, author of the German book "Fotoatlas der Mineralien und Gesteine" asked permission to publish Piet Stemvers' photo in his book.
This was granted with a certain feeling of proud, of course.
Several years later images of a North-Korean postage stamp series appeared in The Mineralogical Record, with european mineral specimens as subject.
One of them was... my own annabergite specimen from Lavrion !
The North-Koreans, who never subscribed the Bern Convention on copyright issues, just copied 3 images from Hochleitner's book, including the annabergite
that is still in my collection today.
I bear no malice for this infringement of the copyright act... I'm rather proud ! I would however have preferred that they would have asked :
we would have given them a perfect original for reproduction instead of the 3rd generation rastered and printed copy
they used. That is indeed why the graphical quality of this stamp is so bad. A pity, isn't it ?
Left: Looking for annabergite in the neighbourhood of the famous locality "km 3" between Lavrion and Kamariza. Photo Ria Dillen, june 1978
Right: The locality "km 3" is well indicated along the road between Lavrion and Kamariza. Photo
Rik Dillen, june 1978
| This is the original sample in its original "Jousi"-box just as it is still in my collection |
| The original image as it appeared in Hochleitner's book. Photo Piet Stemvers. |
| And this is the first day cover ("F.D.C.") with the 3 stamps copied from Hochleitner's book |
