Postage stamps and postal history of the Leeward Islands

The British Leeward Islands - Antigua, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher (St. Kitts), and the Virgin Islands all used postage stamps inscribed "LEEWARD ISLANDS" between 1890 and 1 July 1956, often concurrently with stamps inscribed with the colony's name.

The issue of 1890 was a key plate stamp design with the usual profile of Queen Victoria, eight values ranging from 1/2d to 5 shillings. In 1897 they were overprinted with a logo commemorating Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and in 1902 the 4, 6, and 7d were surcharged with a value of 1d.

The 1890 issue design was also used for stamps of King Edward VII, as well as for King George V and George VI, with several changes of watermark and colours. In 1928 a large one-pound stamp was introduced, and updated for the new monarch when George VI took the throne.

The common design commemorative stamps of the Commonwealth between 1946 and 1949 included stamps inscribed "LEEWARD ISLANDS". In 1951 the West Indies University issue reflected the changeover to cents and dollars, as did the Queen Elizabeth II definitive series of 1954.

Sources[edit]

Rossiter, Stuart & John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald, 1986. ISBN 0-356-10862-7
Scott catalogue

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Postage stamps of the Leeward Islands.

Postage stamps and postal history of the Caribbean

West
Indies

Antilles

Greater
Antilles

Hispaniola	Dominican Republic Haiti

Lesser
Antilles

Leeward
Islands

Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Guadeloupe
- La Désirade
- Les Saintes
- Marie-Galante
Montserrat
Saba^{^*}
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Sint Eustatius^{^*}

Saint Martin^{^}	Collectivity of Saint Martin Sint Maarten
Virgin Islands	British Virgin Islands U.S. Virgin Islands

Southern
Caribbean

Leeward
Antilles

Insular Venezuela
- Federal Dependencies
- Nueva Esparta

ABC islands	Aruba Bonaire^* Curaçao

Windward
Islands

Barbados^†
Trinidad and Tobago^†

Lucayan
Archipelago

Bahamas

Turks and Caicos Islands

Caribbean
Sea

Aves Island
San Andrés and Providencia
- Bajo Nuevo Bank^~
- Serranilla Bank^~

Caribbean
continental
zone

Quintana Roo
- Cozumel

Central America	Belize Honduras Bay Islands Izabal Limón Corn Islands North Caribbean Coast South Caribbean Coast Panama
South America	Colombian Caribbean Venezuelan Caribbean

Wider
groupings
may include:

Yucatán Peninsula	Campeche Petén Yucatán
The Guianas	Amapá French Guiana Venezuelan Guayana Guyana Guayana Esequiba^ǂ Tigri Area^ǂ Suriname

N.B.: Territories in italics are parts of transregional sovereign states or non-sovereign dependencies.

^{^}These three form the SSS islands that with the ABC islands comprise the Dutch Caribbean, of which ^*the BES islands are not direct Kingdom constituents but subsumed with the country of the Netherlands.

^†Physiographically, these continental islands are not part of the volcanic Windward Islands arc, although sometimes grouped with them culturally and politically.

^ǂDisputed territories administered by Guyana. ^~Disputed territories administered by Colombia.

^#Bermuda is an isolated North Atlantic oceanic island, physiographically not part of the Lucayan Archipelago, Antilles, Caribbean Sea nor North American continental nor South American continental islands. It is grouped with the Northern American region, but occasionally also with the Caribbean region culturally.

Postage stamps and postal history of the Americas