Untitled Document

It seems rather unfair to bracket the rest of the 'Saints' together, but after the complications of St Kitts we are perhaps due something a bit easier to digest! St Helena, in contrast to St Lucia and St Vincent, remains a colony, and of course is in the South Atlantic, unlike the others - but they inevitably get lumped together because of their names. We will take them in alphabetical order, so St Helena leads off. As with the other Atlantic islands, I always feel that there is a bit of extra 'hype' attached to St Helena. There are historical reasons for romanticism, beginning with the solitary sojourn of Fernando Lopez, who lived alone on the island for almost thirty years until his death in 1545; and, of course, the exile of Napoleon. Certainly from the philatelic point of view, St Helena is one of the 'classic' colonies, with plenty of interesting postal history to add to 19th century surcharges and key-plates. 20th century issues were highly conservative, but the 1922 'Badge' issue has always appealed to me, with lots of plate varieties to collect; and the Centenary set, very attractive and surely undervalued now.

The King George VI definitives were the subject of a recent monograph by David Studd. Earlier writings by Frank Saunders and Edward Hibbert are also recommended. The set was printed by Waterlow, in monocolours initially; there were minimal sheet markings, just the printer's imprint centrally at base. As is often the case with KGVI sets, early printings were from unnumbered plates, but lower right corner blocks are still collected as 'blank' plate blocks being from the position where the number would have been, had there been one! Sheet numbers may be found on sheets sent to the colony. When the 1940 changes of colour to the 1d and 3d values was made, the Id green and 3d blue became 'valuable' overnight. They acquired an exaggerated value, which still continues to this day.They are plentiful in hinged mint condition, although not so easy unmounted. This type of historical overvaluation is not uncommon with KGVI issues - the Ascension first 3d and Northern Rhodesia first 2d, each in hinged condition, spring to mind as other examples.

There are just three plate varieties known to me. Studd records a 'falling rock' on R6/2 of the 1/2d, present also on the Tristan overprint, and there is a good line in the sky at R9/2 of the 11/2d monocolour. There is also' a variety on the 1s, consisting of a filled apostrophe in 'Colony's' at the base of the stamp. I have seen a positional piece with this variety but cannot find a record of the position; however, it is in the bottom two rows. Doubtless there are more varieties to be found.

The main interest in the set lies in the shades. Some of these are, as is often the case, more a product of the paper changing colour than the ink, but a good range of shades may be found quite cheaply The Commonwealth KGVI catalogue lists 10 while SG list only one. Generally the later colours are brighter and colder than their predecessors, and the paper much whiter. The odd one out is the 'deep yellow shade of the 1d orange yellow which has a intense colour not often seen on stamps of the reign. In 1949 the 1d, 11/2d and 2d values were released as bicolours (fig 2). For some reason the colours selected for the 11/2d and the 2d were released in carmine-rose and carmine respectively; one cannot think that distinguishing between them at the post office can have been easy!

Several values are known overprinted 'ROYAL VISIT/29th APRIL/1947', but, as the Commonwealth catalogue says, their status is doubtful. However, there is no doubt about the status of the overprints for Tristan da Cunha, which were carried out on the KGVI St Helena set. The commemoratives are the standard