Saint Kitts (part of Saint Kitts and Nevis)

Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals on stamps of Saint Kitts

<< previous country back to index next country >>


Contents:
Saint Kitts, also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies.
The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean.
Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Regular letter from Saint Kitts, with stamps of prehistoric animals from 2005, sent to Germany
Regular letter from Saint Kitts, with stamps of prehistoric animals from 2005, sent to Germany.
Saint Kitts and Nevis are separated by a shallow 3-kilometre channel known as "The Narrows". The island is one of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles.
The land area of St. Kitts is about 168 km2, being approximately 29 km long and on average about 8 km across. Saint Kitts has a population of around 35,000, the majority of whom are mainly of African descent.
The primary language is English, residents call themselves Kittitians. [R1]

Saint Kitts and Nevis, in the Leeward Islands, issued general issues concurrent with those of the Leeward Islands from 1903 until July 1, 1956.
From 1952 the stamps were inscribed as "St. Christopher Nevis and Anguilla".
It achieved Associated Statehood on February 27, 1967 but on June 23, 1980, separate postal administrations were established, one for Saint Kitts, the other for Nevis and different issues were produced, despite remaining as one nation.
Since the early 2000’s, Saint Kitt started to produce many souvenir sheets per year. At the same time, the number of stamp issues has also increased. [R2]



Official stamps of Saint Kitts related to Paleontology: dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals

18.04.1994 "Prehistoric Aquatic Reptiles"
(with and without overprint with logo 'Hong Kong '94') [1]
07.02.2005 "Prehistoric animals"
Prehistoric marine reptile on stamps of St Kitts 1994 Prehistoric marine reptile on stamps of St Kitts 1994 Prehistoric animals on stamps of St Kitts 2005

Notes:

[1] These stamps were issued on the same day – some with the overprint logo of “Hong Kong 94” on the bottom right corner.
Similar stamps were issued by Ascension Island (1994, MiNr: 623-627; Scott: 575-579) and Barbados (1993, MiNr: 835-839; Scott: 855a-e).
There are some sheets where both varieties are printed together – one with the overprint, the other without (and with text separation between the rows of stamps).
Other sheets only contain one flavor – including Gutter Pairs, where explanatory text is printed between rows of stamps as shown in the example below.

Gutter pair of stamps with prehistoric animals of Saint Kitts 1994
Gutter pair of stamps with prehistoric animals of Saint Kitts 1994, MiNr.: 367-371, Scott: 372a-e.




References:
  •   [R1] Saint Kitts: Wikipedia,
  •   [R2] Postal History and Philately of Saint Kitts: Wikipedia,



Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to
  • Dr. Jon Noad from Canada for his help finding images and information about prehistoric stamps of Saint Kitts 1994.
  • Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for reviewing the draft page and his valuable comments.



<< previous country back to index next country >>