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This year’s NOTOS meeting is going to be different from the ones we had in 2018 and 2019, as a result of the confinement measures. In a few weeks, the 3rd “NOTOS friends” annual gathering will take place in our laptops or tablets.

The organisers will outline the main points of the NOTOS 2021 roadmap and express their gratitude to the NOTOS 2021 donors and supporters. In between, the viewers will be able to watch the principal exhibition partners in short videos addressing the audience.

The highlights of the evening will include a number of significant announcements, which shouldn’t be missed. So please save the date and, when the time comes, have your interpreter available (as the entire event will be in Greek), pour yourself a favourite drink and join the meeting!

Monday 29 June 2020, 7:00 pm (Athens time)

These days we are tormented by an invisible enemy, which has derailed our habits and our priorities, and which has forced us to question our future plans. But we are optimistic that this threat will soon be eliminated. In a few months today’s nightmare will be a thing of the past.

We are therefore pushing ahead with the same passion in our preparations of NOTOS 2021. The online software for the submission of the entry forms will open on 1 April, exactly as planned.
The relevant link is: https://cometonotos.hps.gr
All pertinent details and regulations have been posted on the pages of the exhibition’s website. Exhibitors from Europe can consult their National Commissioner. Exhibitors from other parts of the world are welcome to contact the General Commissioner.

Our thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones and with those fighting daily, and nightly, on the front line in hospitals.
Let us be cautious, patient and optimistic!
And of course, we Stay At Home!

The first part of the software or the online registration platform for anyone involved in NOTOS 2021 is ready. This brand new software was developed in its entirety by our team of volunteers.
The link will be sent by the Organising Committee to the European Philatelic Federations next Thursday along with the invitation to appoint a National Commissioner and propose Jury members for NOTOS 2021.

Important dates:
16 January 2020: Launch of the software and opening of the registration for National Commissioners and Jurors.
1 April 2020: Opening of the submission of entry forms by the exhibitors.
Later on and when available: Submission of travel details by anyone wishing to be in Athens during the exhibition.

On Friday 29 November, during the FEPA Congress in Monaco, Ari Muhonen, FEPA Consultant for NOTOS 2021, and Costas Chazapis, Head of NOTOS 2021 OC, signed the FEPA Patronage Agreement.

The FEPA Patronage was granted by the FEPA Board to the exhibition on 5 May 2018 and ratified by the FEPA Congress in Prague on 19 August 2018.

Bulletin No. 1 was released today with a lot of useful information on NOTOS 2021. The 38-page booklet will not be printed; it will only be available in pdf format.

Its main topics include the Individual Regulations (IREX) and the newly developed software that is going to be used by anyone involved in NOTOS 2021.

It also features two of the exhibits in the Court of Honour, that have already confirmed: The “Magnificent Seven”, i.e. the seven printing plates of the Large Hermes Heads, presented by the Philatelic and Postal Museum, Athens, and a collection of documents showing the “Genesis of the Hellenic Post”, presented by the General State Archives.

Download the Bulletin No. 1 here

Earlier this week, NOTOS 2021 IREX details were finalised. They were subsequently agreed between the FEPA Consultant and the OC. The IREX was later uploaded on the exhibition website (Menu: The Show > Regulations) along with all the FIP and FEPA regulations observed in NOTOS 2021.

You can get the IREX elegant booklet directly from here (4.2 MB). When you read it, you will realize that it reflects everything the OC has so far promised: Innovation, technology and imagination, along with high philatelic standards, low participation fees and respect to the Philatelic Literature exhibitors.

The extensive report of L’Écho de la timbrologie (July-August 2019) on “Le championnat de France” in Montpellier in June and the Grand Prix awarded to Louis Fanchini’s exhibit “The production and the postal use of the Large Hermes Heads of Greece (1861-1886)” caused a multiple chain reaction. As a result, NOTOS 2021 was included in the pages of Le Monde, with double reference to the exhibition website!
In a two-page interview in the same issue of L’Écho, Louis described the most fascinating details on the Large Hermes Heads and emphasized that the seven typographic plates of the first Greek stamps will be exhibited to the public for the first time in Athens in 2021.
The article in Le Monde, “Philatelic summer readings”, included summaries of stories from four French philatelic journals. Luckily for us, the connection Montpellier – Louis Fanchini – Large Hermes Heads – Typographic plates – NOTOS 2021 was selected by Le Monde to represent the summer writings of L’Écho. Read the complete article here.

We have the pleasure to present to the public brand new photographs of the LHH plates, taken a few days ago by the renowned Greek photographer and good friend of NOTOS 2021, Ioannis Assimakopoulos. The shooting took place in the basement of the Museum, with the co-operation of the Museum staff and under the supervision of its Director, Vassilis Tountas.

The visitors of the website now have the opportunity to closely examine six of the seven plates (1, 2, 5, 10, 40 and 80 lepta) here, before they will be exhibited in November 2021. Right now, the seventh plate (20 lepta) is under reconstruction.

On the road to 2021, a number of companies show special interest in NOTOS 2021. They are impressed by the targets set by the Organizing Committee and appreciate its practices. These are major Greek companies with international orientation, or subsidiaries in Greece of known multinationals. Their trust in the project is expressed by granting the use of their logo on the homepage of this website.
The OC welcomes them on board!

We have the pleasure to announce that the General State Archives have agreed to join NOTOS 2021 in presenting to the public the very first documents related to postal activities in Greece during the War of Independence and the newborn State. Exhibits will include:
(a) The annual contracts for the operation of Kardaras postal service (1821-1827)
(b) Kapodistrias’ proclamation on the establishment of the State postal service (1828)
(c) The postal regulations of Poros (1828), Aegina (1829) and Nafplion (1829 & 1834)