BackwardVirtual Stamp CollectionForward

British Virgin Islands
St. Ursula Definitive of 1867

St. Ursula Definitive of 1867
Forgery of an early issue of the British Virgin Islands.
The first stamps issued for the British Virgin Islands
depicted St. Ursula or a Virgin and lamps.

The stamp display above is a forgery that can be recognized by the fact that there are 82 pearls in the frame around the Virgin rather than the 127 pearls in the authentic stamp. Several other differences are outlined in The Serrane Guide (364).

Depending on how liberally one chooses to define the term island, there are between thirty and more than forty islands in the British Virgin Islands group. It is said that Columbus was responsible for labelling these islands, cays and sandbars Las Virgines after St. Ursula and the virgins who followed her who were martyred by the Huns (circa 383). St. Ursula is featured on the coat of arms of the colony and she has appeared on stamps issued during the reigns of Queen Victoria, George V, George VI and Elizabeth II.

St. Ursula on stamps through many reigns
During every reign from Queen Victoria to Elizabeth II (except that of Edward VII)
stamps have been issued for the British Virgin Islands featuring St. Ursula.

Post Office
The BVI Post Office opened its new location in
the Maduro Building in Road Town in July 2012.

Postal Sorting Station
Building extension now used as postal sorting station built in the 1950's
with revenue from the sales of stamps in the 1950's.

Road Town
Scenes of Road Town including "Old Administration Building" in top right corner.


Bibliography

"British Virgin Islands." Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue. 2005.

Earee, REV. R. B. "Virgin Islands." Album Weeds or, How to Detect Forged Stamps. London: Stanley Gibbons and Co.,
     1882. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=ibl2_M4Q2FoC&printsec=frontcover&output=
     reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA551.

Kanyuck, Chrystall. "New post office open in RT." The BVI Beacon. 24 Jul. 2012: n.p. web. 11 Jan. 2014.
     http://www.bvibeacon.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id
     =2314:new-post-office-open-in-rt&catid=455:local-news-july-19-2012.

Lewisohn, Florence. Tales of Tortola and the British Virgin Islands. Hollywood, Florida: International Graphics, 1981.

Rossiter, Stuart and John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald, 1986.

Serrane, Fernand. The Serrane Guide: Stamp Forgeries of the World to 1926. Trans. Cortland Eyer. State College, Penn.: American Philatelic Society, 1998.


Direct comments, questions and corrections to:
stampquestions@hotmail.com


Backward

Virtual Stamp Collection Index

Forward


© Grose Educational Media, 2014