NEVIS (West Indies)

Return To Catalogue - Leewart islands - St Kitts

Note: on my website many of the pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the cd's;
contact me if you want to purchase them: evert@klaseboer.com.

Before the introduction of special stamps for Nevis, the stamps of Great Britain with cancel "A09" were used (sorry, no picture available yet).

From 1891 till 1903 Nevis used the stamps of the Leewart islands.

Together with St Kitts it reissued stamps from 1903 on.

1861 Arms of the colony; three women at a medicinal spring, various frames, perforated

  1 p red
  4 p red
  4 p orange
  6 p grey
  1 Sh green

For the specialist: these stamps are unwatermarked. There are 12 different types of each stamp (they were issued in twelve stamps in each sheet). In 1861 the values 1 p, 4 p red, 6 p and 1 Sh were engraved on bluish or yellowish paper, perforated 13. The values 1 p, 4 p orange and 1 Sh were issued engraved on white paper in 1867, perforated 13. In 1876 the values 1 p, 4 p orange, 6 p and 1 Sh were issued lithographed with perforation 15 (also 11 1/2 for the 1 p).

vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon

*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare

Cancels:

Typical cancellation:

I've seen a 1 p stamp cancelled with a very thick black cross.

Forgeries:

Most likely a Spiro forgery. I've seen it with typical Spiro cancels. In the genuine stamps the lower leg of the 'E' of 'ONE' is very long. The dress of the sick lady is clearly V-shaped around her neck.

Two Spiro forgeries of the 4 p value, the crosses in the corners and the lettering are too thick. It also exists in yellow color. On the left hand side, there is too much space between the circle and the left hand border. These forgeries usually have a New South Wales alike forged cancel, but it also exists with a pattern of dots (as above), a 'VF' with unreadable text circular cancel (as in the 1 p forgery shown below) and possible other cancels.

Probably all Spiro forgeries of the 6 p value.

1 p wrong colour; black on lilac, reduced size. The cancel (consisting of four lines) is always placed in the same position. This forgery was made by the stamp forger Zechmeyer

(Oneglia forgeries, reduced sizes)

(Oneglia forgeries)

I've been told that the above engraved forgeries are made by Oneglia, I have no further information right now. Album Weeds mentions that these forgeries first appeared in 1904-1905. The 4 p of this forgery set has four very heavy dots in the corners. They often appear with a '1' numeral cancel and with too wide margins. The 'X' of 'SIX' in the 6 p value is badly done.

Other primitive forgeries:

Note that the 1 Sh is in the design of the 1 p! The genuine stamps are quite different with the central design in an ellipse! The 1 Sh also has the wrong inscription '1 SCHILLING' instead of '1 SHILLING' pointing to a German origin (possibly the stamp dealer Zechmeyer).

Spiro forgery of the 1 p stamp and another 'SCHILLING' bogus stamp as shown above. The 1 p Spiro forgery can be distinguished by the rays of the corner stars, which do not extend all the way to the surrounding squares. The left and right wavy patterns are less regular than in the genuine 1 p stamp. I've also seen this 1 p forgery with a 'VF' cancel with unreadable text around it (see image above). The panel with 'NEVIS' is placed slightly too low when compared to the boxed with ornaments left and right of it in the1 p Spiro forgery.

More Spiro forgeries with "VF" cancels.

A 4 p forgery which I have only seen with a '40?' numeral cancel. In my opinion, the 'F' of 'FOUR' is too close to the left border and the 'R' of this word has no tail. I've seen this forgery in yellow as well. They appear to have a '408' cancel, very similar to the Treherne forgeries of Western Australia.

A very primitive forgery with a '975' numeral cancel, click here for more of such forgeries made in India

Other forgery of the 1 p value.

The word 'NEVIS' is too small and 'ONE' and 'SHILLING' are placed too close to each other in this forgery of the 1 Sh stamp.

Forgeries of the 1 Sh value; Note the weird cancel on the second forgery. The same cancel can be found in the Fournier Album (see reduced sized image at the right hand side)

Forgery of the 1 Sh value with very strange line cancel.

Forgery of the 1 Sh on very white paper.

Another forgery of the 1 Sh value.

Fournier forgeries of the 6 p and 1 Sh value as they can be found in the 'Fournier Album of Philatelic Forgeries'. Fournier also forged the 1 p stamp (sorry, no images available yet). Both the above forgeries are rather primitive. The arm of the sick lady points to the 'E' of 'ONE' instead of the 'N' of this word.

Forged cancel 'A09' as used by the forger Fournier. I've seen it applied on a genuine stamp of St.Lucia with the fiscal pencancel removed.

Fiscal stamps:

These stamps overprinted 'Revenue' are fiscal stamps, The 1 p, 4 p orange, 6 p grey and 1 Sh green exist overprinted like this, example:

(overprint diagonally)

(overprint horizontal)

In 1877 the overprint was done by hand (usually diagonally), from 1878 onwards the overprint is horizontal. These revenue stamps exist with forged postal cancels. I have seen a 6 p forgery with the word 'Revenue' erased, pretending to be a postage stamp.

1880 Queen Victoria

  1/2 p green
  1 p violet
  1 p red
  2 1/2 p brown
  2 1/2 p blue
  4 p blue
  4 p grey
  6 p green
  6 p brown
  1 Sh violet

Bisected, overprinted 'NEVIS' and new value

  '1/2 d' (black or violet) on 1 p lilac 

For the specialist: these stamps exist with watermark CC Crown or watermark CA Crown. The perforation is always 14.

vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon

*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare

This stamp also exists bisected without the overprint:

An unsevered stamp with overprints, originally belonging to the Ferrari collection.

Stamp used fiscally:

(1 p stamp used fiscally)

(Reduced sizes)

In 1880 the 1 p lilac stamp was overprinted 'Revenue'. These stamps exist overprinted (1881) with 'REVENUE' to be used as fiscal stamps, known are the values 1 p lilac, 4 p blue, 6 p green and 1 Sh violet. They exists with forged postal cancels.

Forgeries:

Some primitive forgeries. I have also seen the 1 p lilac, 1 p red (both with 'ONE PENNY' too short), 2 1/2 p red (non existing color for a genuine stamp!) and 2 1/2 p blue. The cancels are blotches, '105' numeral cancel in between six bars and 2 sidebars; the same cancel but without number, squarish cancel, circle consisting of dots, line cancel etc (see image below). Similar forgeries exist for Antigua, Gibraltar and St.Lucia.

Some of the cancels on these forgeries. The 4 p shown earlier has a '105' numeral cancel.

Another type of forgery. The face has white areas (lithography?) and the 'S' of 'NEVIS' is different.

I've been told that these 6 p green stamps are Sperati forgeries. There is a break in the outer frameline to the right of the 'E' of 'PENCE' (similar to the genuine stamp in the sheet which Sperati copied it from). In my opinion, there are some weak spots in the 'N' and 'S' of 'NEVIS'

The Montreal Philatelist (Vol.2, No.2, June 1900, p.145) warns against forged 6 p green stamps created from 1/2 p green stamps by removing the value of the 1/2 p and printing 'SIX PENCE' instead. This warning apparently appeared earlier in the 'Briefmarken Journal'. I have never seen such a forgery.

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer