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Remark: Many of the stamps presented here are from the private collection of Peter C. Elias (website http://www.stvincentstamps.com ), thanks Peter for letting me use your images! All images starting with 'elias' are taken from him.
Postage stamps, surcharged 'REVENUE' or 'Revenue' for fiscal use:
1 p green 1 p red 4 p blue 6 p green 1 Sh orange Bisected diagonally by perforation and surcharged
Overprinted with '3d. Revenue' and bisected postal stamp
'3d.' on 1/2 of 6 p green Surcharged
'THREE PENCE' on 1 p lilac
1 p lilac 4 p lilac 6 p lilac 1 Sh lilac 5 Sh lilac Surcharged
'THREE PENCE' on 6 p lilac '3 d' on 1 p lilac '3 d' on 4 p lilac '3' on 1 Sh lilac '6 PENCE' on 4 p lilac '1 SHILLING' on 4 p lilac '1 S' (Red) on 1 Sh lilac
'1 d' on 1 p red 6 p violet 1 Sh orange
With the introduction of the a new series of stamps in 1899 with inscription 'POSTAGE & REVENUE', the issue of revenue stamps stopped (since these stamps could be used for both postal and fiscal purposes), except for some very recent issues.
Forgeries: be careful with fiscal stamps cancelled with the 'A10' cancel. Though fiscal stamps do exist postally used (3 p lilac, 4 p blue, 6 p green, 6 p lilac and 1 Sh orange), Peter Elias says that 'any St.Vincent Revenue overprint stamp with an "A10" cancel should be considered fake unless on cover'. Sometimes the revenue pen cancel is removed and a fake 'A10' cancel is applied instead.
(Fake 'A10' cancel on a revenue stamp)
5 Sh red 5 Sh lilac (Smaller overprint) 1 Pound on 5 Sh red 1 Pound on 5 sh lilac (3 types) 5 Pounds on 5 Sh lilac 10 Pounds on 5 Sh lilac 25 Pounds on 5 Sh lilac 50 Pounds on 5 Sh red
POSTCARDS
The following values in the above design exist: 1 p red and 1 1/2 p (PENNY HALFPENNY) brown. The inscription reads: 'UNION POSTALE UNIVERSELLE ST.VINCENT (ST.VINCENT) POST CARD THE ADRESS TO BE WRITTEN ON THIS SIDE'. I've also seen the same postcards with a reply slip and the same text with 'REPLY' added.
In the same design exists a 1/2 p green (HALFPENNY), the inscription now reads: 'POST CARD ST.VINCENT THE ADRESS ONLY TO BE WRITTEN ON THIS SIDE'.
With the face of King Edward: The inscription reads: 'UNION POSTALE UNIVERSELLE ST.VINCENT (ST.VINCENT) POST CARD THE ADRESS ONLY TO BE WRITTEN ON THIS SIDE'.
Later designs:
A 1/2 p green also exist in this design
WRAPPERS
Wrappers exist in the same design as the Queen Victoria postcards, the values 1/2 p green and 1 p red exist (1893).
I have also seen a wrapper of 1/2 p green in the postcard design of King George (with the rounded top).
REGISTERED LETTERS
2 p greyish blue
I have seen the registration envelopes of King Edward, with the face of King George, in the values 2 p blue (2 types, with '2d' in blue or in white on blue background) and 3 p blue.
Example of an envelope from the collection of Peter Elias:
Stampless cover of St.Vincent reduced size
Zoom-in on the cancels: August 1845 from St.Vincent to London
Normally the first stamps of St.Vincent were cancelled with a 'A10' so-called 'killer' stamp, examples:
Three 'A10' cancels: one in red and two in black
Kingstown (the capital) got the cancel with a 'K' in it, example:
'K' cancel of Kingstown
Thirteen other similar cancels with 'BEQ', 'BI',
'BU', 'CA', 'CH', 'CO', 'CUM', 'G', 'L', 'MES', 'RAB', 'ST' and
'UE' were issued for the villages of the island. The
abbreviations are for the various St. Vincent villages and stand
for:
'BEQ' = Bequia,
'BI' = Biabou,
'BU' = Buccament,
'CA' = Calliaqua,
'CH' = Chateaubelair,
'CO' = Colonarie,
'CUM' = Cumberland,
'G' = Georgetown,
'L' = Layou,
'MES' = Mesopotamia,
'RAB' = Rabacca,
'ST' = Stubbs,
'UE = Union Estate.
All of these post offices opened in 1872 except BEQ which did not receive this cancel until 1894 (information thanks to Peter Elias). It should be noted that these letter cancels were mostly put elsewhere on the envelope and not on the stamps (since the 'A10' cancel was used for this), examples of these letter cancels:
'BI', 'BU' and 'CA' (2x) cancels
A rare 'BEQ' cancel used on the island of Bequia (opened 1894,
information Peter Elias):
The website: http://www.cwiakala.com/numerical.cancel.html also mentions 'A' (New Adelphi), 'BAR' (Barrouallie) and 'C' (used in different towns: Peruvian Vale 1888-1894, Union? 1894-1905, Bridgetown 1905-1908 Troumaca 1910; different size).
Later, more normal cancels were used, examples:
A parcel post cancel:
Parcel Post
Two 'GB/ 40c' cancel. The 'GB / 40c' postmark was added by French postal services and indicated the amount due to them from the British post offices in centimes when they handled their mail (information thanks to Peter Elias).
