RICH ASSORTMENT OF STAMPS FROM A WELL-TO-DO ISLAND
I’ve never been to the Caribbean, (although I’ve been as close as the Bahamas) and if I ever get the chance to wander about some of the islands I think I would enjoy the tiny state of Anguilla. Rarely heard from, and often mistaken for the slightly larger Antigua, Anguilla staged a short-lived revolution in 1967 and became a fully "legal" stamp issuing entity in 1981. Since then the 17-mile-long island has gone from strength to strength in most ways
Mind you its stamp issues didn’t get off to the most promising of starts, as the first set that legally bore the name of "Anguilla" only was a Easter issue featuring those well-known Anguillan cartoon characters, Minnie Mouse and friends. However, Anguilla’s philatelic administrators have largely avoided the sell-out school of stamp issuing and the result is a modest issuing programme based on local culture and postal needs – in fact, a collector’s dream.
These days, as philatelic traveller and writer Basil Herwald notes as he continues his tour of the Caribbean in Britain’s Gibbons Stamp Monthly, "Most stamps issued are of indigenous interest." Just a few commemorative sets are issued each year , with a heavy emphasis on the island’s natural history, and definitive sets are replaced just every five years. Few if any Anguillans collect their island’s stamps, although postal officials have hopes of changing this eventually through marketing and clever ploys such as putting an internet café in the post office building and selling greetings cards along with the stamps.
Because Anguilla keeps control over its stamp issues, and pays the printer’s bills itself rather than relying on an agent, one thing you will not find relating to its new releases is a great sense of urgency. Visitors to Anguilla Postal Service’s web site (www.gov.ai/angstamp) will find no details on issues after those of 2004, although T-shirts featuring nicely cancelled Anguillan stamps seem to be readily available, Stamps tend to go on sale rather later than planned. As Herwald notes, glossy brochures were printed to herald stamps marking the 40th anniversary of the revolution, but the date in question, 30 May, 2007, came and went without the stamps being sighted on the horizon.
John Harrigan, the deputy postmaster and the chief power in the philatelic bureau, admitted some time after this date: "We were a bit late sending the listings to John Lister [the UK selling agents and philatelic advisors and fixers for the island]. So we don’t know the prospective date of issue."
As Anguillans soon "saw the light" after their revolution and once again became a British colony, the stamps are still sent to Buckingham Palace for approval, the islanders are in the unusual position of having to ask Queen Elizabeth II to put her stamp of approval on a set honouring the men and women who rose up against British rule.
The revolution, by the way, was not just the result of a bit of restlessness on the island in the Leeward Islands to the east of Puerto Rico. Anguilla, as true blue collectors will know, had long been lumped in with St Kitts Nevis, although it is well separated from those islands by sea and the French and/or Dutch islands of St. Martin and St. Bartholomew. The name of the island did not even appear on a stamp until 1950, and then it was in the form of an overprint: "Anguilla Tercentenary 1650-1950." The first stamp with "Anguilla" printed on it as part of the issuing entity’s name was the 1952 definitive set.
Development lagged badly on Anguilla and resentment simmered and then boiled up in the form of the revolution. Anguillans soon "saw the error of their ways" – the fact that 400 British paratroopers who dropped down on their pristine beaches was probably a factor -- and returned to the fold. Long-delayed development came to pass, and today the island is a holiday paradise with a wide selection of hotels and other accommodation.
The stamps of Anguilla are generally attractive and not too complicated, although critics might say the attempt to keep issues relevant to island culture results in a certain sameness from time to time. One brilliant exception to this can be seen in one of the 2004 stamp sets marking the island’s third running of its Biennial International Arts Festival. (The others, in varying degrees of sophistication, picture hotels, telephones, Olympic athletes and goats.) This set reproduces paintings by Anguillan artists, and one of them, "Party at the Beach" by Jean-Pierre Ballagny, vividly captures island life at its best as "the joy and pleasure of living on a peaceful, tranquil island is celebrated in dance after a family picnic at the beach." If you don’t have at least faint stirrings to visit Anguilla one day after looking at this stamp you probably should have your pulse checked. You can see this stamp by going to www.gov.ai/angstamp and clicking on "New Releases".
While Anguillan stamps are reasonably popular by tiny Caribbean island state standards and many are used by the island’s tourists and hotels and other businesses, postally used examples are a bit thin on the ground, along with samples of postal history. I went through my fairly large holdings of Commonwealth stamps and small islands postal history and postcards without finding a single mint Anguillan stamp, never mind a used one or, even better, a nice registered letter to Madagascar.
Basil Herwald ends his account of Anguillan philately with a fine story, and I will too. He reports that after he left the island he was told by an administrator in the neighbouring French island of St. Martin that islanders approached the British government, cap in hand, after a recent hurricane caused widespread damage. The British government’s response was reportedly: "Your gross domestic product is higher than Britain’s – you can afford to make the repairs yourselves!"
Editor's note: This article first appeared in Canadian Stamp News as one of my Commonwealth Communique columns for this excellent publication.
Mind you its stamp issues didn’t get off to the most promising of starts, as the first set that legally bore the name of "Anguilla" only was a Easter issue featuring those well-known Anguillan cartoon characters, Minnie Mouse and friends. However, Anguilla’s philatelic administrators have largely avoided the sell-out school of stamp issuing and the result is a modest issuing programme based on local culture and postal needs – in fact, a collector’s dream.
These days, as philatelic traveller and writer Basil Herwald notes as he continues his tour of the Caribbean in Britain’s Gibbons Stamp Monthly, "Most stamps issued are of indigenous interest." Just a few commemorative sets are issued each year , with a heavy emphasis on the island’s natural history, and definitive sets are replaced just every five years. Few if any Anguillans collect their island’s stamps, although postal officials have hopes of changing this eventually through marketing and clever ploys such as putting an internet café in the post office building and selling greetings cards along with the stamps.
Because Anguilla keeps control over its stamp issues, and pays the printer’s bills itself rather than relying on an agent, one thing you will not find relating to its new releases is a great sense of urgency. Visitors to Anguilla Postal Service’s web site (www.gov.ai/angstamp) will find no details on issues after those of 2004, although T-shirts featuring nicely cancelled Anguillan stamps seem to be readily available, Stamps tend to go on sale rather later than planned. As Herwald notes, glossy brochures were printed to herald stamps marking the 40th anniversary of the revolution, but the date in question, 30 May, 2007, came and went without the stamps being sighted on the horizon.
John Harrigan, the deputy postmaster and the chief power in the philatelic bureau, admitted some time after this date: "We were a bit late sending the listings to John Lister [the UK selling agents and philatelic advisors and fixers for the island]. So we don’t know the prospective date of issue."
As Anguillans soon "saw the light" after their revolution and once again became a British colony, the stamps are still sent to Buckingham Palace for approval, the islanders are in the unusual position of having to ask Queen Elizabeth II to put her stamp of approval on a set honouring the men and women who rose up against British rule.
The revolution, by the way, was not just the result of a bit of restlessness on the island in the Leeward Islands to the east of Puerto Rico. Anguilla, as true blue collectors will know, had long been lumped in with St Kitts Nevis, although it is well separated from those islands by sea and the French and/or Dutch islands of St. Martin and St. Bartholomew. The name of the island did not even appear on a stamp until 1950, and then it was in the form of an overprint: "Anguilla Tercentenary 1650-1950." The first stamp with "Anguilla" printed on it as part of the issuing entity’s name was the 1952 definitive set.
Development lagged badly on Anguilla and resentment simmered and then boiled up in the form of the revolution. Anguillans soon "saw the error of their ways" – the fact that 400 British paratroopers who dropped down on their pristine beaches was probably a factor -- and returned to the fold. Long-delayed development came to pass, and today the island is a holiday paradise with a wide selection of hotels and other accommodation.
The stamps of Anguilla are generally attractive and not too complicated, although critics might say the attempt to keep issues relevant to island culture results in a certain sameness from time to time. One brilliant exception to this can be seen in one of the 2004 stamp sets marking the island’s third running of its Biennial International Arts Festival. (The others, in varying degrees of sophistication, picture hotels, telephones, Olympic athletes and goats.) This set reproduces paintings by Anguillan artists, and one of them, "Party at the Beach" by Jean-Pierre Ballagny, vividly captures island life at its best as "the joy and pleasure of living on a peaceful, tranquil island is celebrated in dance after a family picnic at the beach." If you don’t have at least faint stirrings to visit Anguilla one day after looking at this stamp you probably should have your pulse checked. You can see this stamp by going to www.gov.ai/angstamp and clicking on "New Releases".
While Anguillan stamps are reasonably popular by tiny Caribbean island state standards and many are used by the island’s tourists and hotels and other businesses, postally used examples are a bit thin on the ground, along with samples of postal history. I went through my fairly large holdings of Commonwealth stamps and small islands postal history and postcards without finding a single mint Anguillan stamp, never mind a used one or, even better, a nice registered letter to Madagascar.
Basil Herwald ends his account of Anguillan philately with a fine story, and I will too. He reports that after he left the island he was told by an administrator in the neighbouring French island of St. Martin that islanders approached the British government, cap in hand, after a recent hurricane caused widespread damage. The British government’s response was reportedly: "Your gross domestic product is higher than Britain’s – you can afford to make the repairs yourselves!"
Editor's note: This article first appeared in Canadian Stamp News as one of my Commonwealth Communique columns for this excellent publication.
posted by Chad Neighbor at
19.3.08
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