COVER N. 233 - ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

Postmark: Antigua and Barbuda General Post Office - All Saints Branch 01.03.2023; General Post Office 08.03.2023.

Posted on the 8th March; Received on the 18th April 2023
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"With a little help from my friends"... so goes the chorus in the immortal Beatles song made even more evergreen by the great Joe Cocker...

Upon inspecting the stash of diverse envelopes on my desk, I find myself whistling this line  time and time again...

Antigua and Barbuda... how the hell would I get a cover from such a remote place if not with a little help from my friend Eric, who keeps ensuring that my country list keeps on growing... Thank you so much, Eric. I have no words meaningful enough to express my gratitude.

The British Commonwealth of nations is in itself a study subject that would recommend that those that delve into its intricacies for the first time be sure to use some sort of Ariadne's thread, for "the road is long, with many a winding turn" ( pretty musical today, am I...)

So I went and checked Antigua and Barbuda, to learn that the islands, located in the confluence of the Atlantic and the Caribbean, were first colonised by the Spanish and the French, later to be followed by the British who founded a colony, its economy relying as usual on slave workforce to exploit sugarcane plantations. 

From 1671 to 1958, the islands integrated the British Leeward Federation, and then  up to 1962, the West Indies Federation, still under British sovereignty. In 1967 they became an Autonomous State although still associated with the UK, finally becoming fully independent in 1981. (And I've kept some intermediate steps out of the report... didn’t I tell you it was not a straight course?...)

The State's economy relies today much on the same crop that turned it into a colony... sugar, and of course also on what every Caribbean economies relies on... hordes of tourists longing for white sandy beaches and coconut trees, being dumped ashore from hugely polluting cruise ships.

Eric used some quite interesting stamps on this great letter:

From 1970 to 1974, the Antigua and Barbuda Postal Administration issued a series of annual stamp sets themed on military uniforms.

On my cover two such examples can be seen, both denominated at 1/2 cent: the stamp on the left, depicting a Battalion Company officer of the 25th foot, the King's own Borderers regiment, 1815, integrated the 1972 issue, which began to circulate on 01JUL1972, while the one on the right, part of the original 1970 issue, which started to circulate on 14DEC1970, bears the image of  a Drummer Boy, of the 4th King's Own Regiment, 1759, so the legends on the stamps inform us.

Identifying the starfish stamp took me some effort. In fact, probably due to the already mentioned rather complicated administrative evolution of the Territory/Autonomous State/Country, it was listed in Stampworld catalogue in a separate Barbuda section and not in  the Antigua and Barbuda folder.  This is also evident in the country's name on the stamps on the cover themselves: Antigua, Barbuda and even Redonda, echoing the administrative divisions of the country.

The 60 cent stamp is part of marine life set comprising 13 stamps issued on 15SEP1987, and the thorny starfish therein depicted goes by the scientific name of Echinaster echinophorus.

The souvenir sheet was issued by the island of Redonda, which is odd, since the island, I read, is deserted although being considered a dependency...a philatelic gimmick, in all due probability…

Anyway, the single stamp on the sheet commemorates the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II, and was issued on 10JAN1979, being illustrated with a family portrait of the monarch with prince Phillip, Princess Anne and the then Prince now King Charles III.

The Postmark bears no place identification other than the name of the State.