British Virgin Islands: Proof?

Thanks for your post, Roy (sudbury12000 ).  This is an interesting item, to be sure.

I am not at all a specialist in this area, but I did a websearch that led me down a few different paths:

• The 1866-1879 British Virgin Islands St. Ursula issue were extensively forged: stampforgeries.com/forged-stamps-of-british-virgin-islands/
• A dealer named Pennymead lists an imperf forgery here: www.pennymead.com/results.php?ct=7&sub=269&m=s
• Another dealer named Steve Drewett lists a green plate proof on thin card stock here: www.stevedrewett.com/index.php?s=125

My suggestion would be first to try to determine if your copy is genuine or forged, and then go from there.  It is hard for me to see much detail from your image, but normally one would expect sharp details on a plate or die proof.  I can't see that level of detail in your image, but I am not sure if it is the stamp or the image that is the issue in that case.

As you have the actual stamp, you should be able to compare to the genuine and forgeries and get a pretty good idea about yours.

I hope this helps.