British Virgin Islands: Stamps & Postmarks

One of my favorite modern sets (Scott #s 774-779) of the British Virgin Islands celebrating the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the islands.

Three definitive sets of stamps were issued from 1956 to 1964.
The first series SG 149-161 in B.W.I.dollar denominations showed maps,birds and various local scenes.


This set was reissued in 1962 with surcharges in US dollar denominations. SG 162-173



The third series SG 178-192 was issued in 1964 ,showing maps.birds and more local scenes.

This week's new arrivals included the 1888 Scott 18 which is the 1 shilling with 4D overprint featuring St. Ursula with the red margins. The use of St. Ursula is a nice change from the heavy usage of Queen Victoria on Commonwealth countries in that era. The 1 shilling with white margins is Scott 7 and with red margins is Scott 8. I do not know the reason for the red margins. 

It does look rather suspect Roy. Check this link for Virgin Island forgeries. stampforgeries.com/forged-stamps-of-british-virgin-islands/

I’m not an expert on Virgin Island, but that “square of dots” cancel is similar to the ones I often see on my Venezuelan forgeries.

hdm1950 thank you for the link, that is a lot of forgeries.

British Virgin Islands 1970    Pirates, UNICEF, and Princess Margaret.

1974   Sir Winston Churchill.

hdm1950 - Your BVI collection is wonderful! Do you have a cutoff date for this collection?

I know that finding anything from there postally used after 1980 is almost impossible. I still have my tiny starter Virgin Is, also the  Leewards as they tie in somewhat with my Danish West Indies. 

Here is page 2 and 3 from my Scott British America album. The pages following this up to 1965 are complete except for a couple of 1964 issues. I have not pursued varieties for this country. 

Virgin Islands : Ships
Sc#210
Merchantman : THETIS

Sc#212
His Majesty's Frigate BOREAS

doug534

Postmark  : ROAD-TOWN  TORTOLA  bvi  (Capital)

Road Town, located on Tortola, is the capital and largest town of the British Virgin Islands.
It is situated on the horseshoe-shaped Road Harbour

PS: It is my (Uneducated guess) that WI   is an error in production,  and should be VI 

WI and VI appear to be pertinent but VI was used in 1911  





link

Perhaps so, but that postmark was in use for quite a while.  Your example dates from 1946, and this example (nabbed from the Steve Drewett / Empire Stamp Auctions site) shows the same postmark in use in 1941.  (I also saw a commercially used cover with that postmark - this one has a bit of a philatelic look to it.)



"British West Indies" was a term in common usage at the time, according to Wikipedia.  "Before the decolonization of the Americas in the later 1950s and 1960s, the term "British West Indies" was regularly used to include all British colonies in the region as part of the British Empire."  We know the W.I. abbreviation can't stand for "Windward Islands" in this case, as BVI was among the Leeward Islands.

Ryan