History of mail and postage stamps of the Turks and Caicos Islands

The history of mail on the Turks and Caicos Islands is connected with the English colonial administration. The first steps in establishing the postal service of the islands with the rest of the world, however, were unsuccessful. The first British ship , the RMS Medina, which served the , was wrecked on the Northern reef near Grand Turk and was lost at sea in 1842. As a result, the established transatlantic mail routes were changed, and the islands were no longer a planned stop on their way. Over the next decade, all mail was to be transported across St. Thomas , at a distance of 450 miles (730 km ), on a schooner funded locally ^[5] .

In 1852, , then , founded the permanent post office ^[6] at Grand Turk and persuaded the authorities of the United Kingdom to reopen the direct mail route . At the same time for the safety of navigation in the same year on the island was built a ^[5] . Until 1867, Jamaica postage stamps were used here ^{[7] [8]} .

As the population grew and other islands developed — , and Providenciales — they eventually also established post offices ^[5] .

Further, the organization of postal business in the Turks and Caicos Islands was determined by the fact that they were part of Jamaica ^{[7] [8]} before the declaration of independence of Jamaica on August 6, 1962, and then, in 1962, became a separate crown colony ^{[ 2] [8]} . For a short period (1958-1962), the islands were part of the Federation of the West Indies . In 1981, the islands by status became dependent territory of Great Britain, and in 2002 - British overseas territory ^[2] . Under these conditions, the islands participate in postal operations governed by UPU agreements ^[3] . The postal service on the islands is now supported by TCI Postal and Philatelic Bureau Services (The Postal Service and the Philatelic Bureau of the Turks and Caicos Islands) ^{[3] [4]} , which is subordinate to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Transport and Communications ( Ministry of Home Affairs, Transportation and Communication ) ^[9] and the Ministry of Government Support Services ^[4] .

Until recently, the post office in the Turks and Caicos Islands did not deliver correspondence and did not use mailboxes outside the post offices to collect mailings ^[5] . In 2012, it was announced that Providenciales planned to place mailboxes in the business part of the island and other public places ^[4] .

The Turks and Caicos Islands currently use the postcode TKCA 1ZZ . Earlier, the islands did not have their own zip code, and for the mailings they used a common code for the British West Indies - BWI (short for British West Indies ) ^[5] .

Turks Islands

The first postal stamp of the Turks Islands was released April 4, 1867 ^{[1] [5] [7]} . It was a single-penny red stamp ( “One Penny Red” ) ^{[5] [10] [≡]} . The brand was reprinted many times, it printed new denominations in the range from ½ pennies to 4 pence ^[10] . On the stamps there was an inscription: “Turks Islands” (“Turks Islands”) ^{[1] [7]} .

Turks and Caicos Islands

The first postal stamp of the Turks and Caicos Islands entered into circulation on November 10, 1900 ^{[1] [10]} . The affiliation of postage stamps was indicated by the text: “Turks and Caicos Islands” (“Turks and Caicos Islands”) ^{[1] [7]} .

The first commemorative stamps were issued in 1935 ^[1] .

During the classical period, some of the plots and were specific to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Thus, the extraction of sea ​​salt , which in the past had economic importance for the islands, is represented on several postage stamps ^[2] :

• Examples of postage stamps of the Turks and Caicos Islands of the mid-20th century on salt mining
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  1938: Salt raking. Profile of George VI ( Mi # 173)

•  

  1950: loading bulk salt. Portrait of George VI ( Mi # 147; Yt # 147)

•  

  1957: Salt mining on the island of Salt Cay . Portrait of Elizabeth II ( Mi # 173)

The Turks and Caicos Islands participated in many colonial omnibus releases , making the design of a number of island brands common to the British colonies ^{[2] [≡]} .

In 1959, stamps were issued to mark the new constitution , since the islands became a separate colony ^[2] .

The first postage stamps that appeared after receiving the new status of the crown colony in 1962 were the Freedom from Hunger omnibus issue of June 4, 1963 ^{[8] [10]} .

For an interval of almost one hundred years, from 1867 to 1963, 181 postage stamps were issued ^[7] .

In 1973, the first postal block of Turks and Caicos was released ^[1] .

From the 1970s to the present, the Turks and Caicos Islands mainly print stamps aimed at the market of collectors - subjects ^[2] . Modern plots of stamps and postal blocks are very diverse and are devoted to historical events, pop culture and nature ^[5] .

For the islands in 1917-1919 military tax stamps were issued ^[1] , which represented an overprint on the postage stamps of the text: “War tax” (“War tax”) ^[7] .

Despite the fact that this group of islands was not politically independent, on July 24, 1981, she published her own overprinted stamps. Their appearance was stimulated by a company engaged in the marketing of postage stamps, and initially they were not accepted in the world of philately ^[8] .

The stamps that had the overprint “Caicos Islands” (“Caicos Islands”) were issued from 1981 to 1985, but the legality of their release in philatelic literature was questioned ^[11] .

Subsequently, the stamps of the Caicos Islands were still used for mailings, but their final status remains uncertain ^[8] . The plots of the stamps are also aimed at the philatelic market of various thematic areas ^[2] .

In the English Stanley Gibbons catalogs , information about the postal issues of Turks and Caicos is collected in “red” volumes for stamps of Great Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations ^[10] :

Vintage emissions of the Turks and Caicos Islands (until 2014) and the Caicos Islands (1981-1985) are described in the combined (“yellow”) volume of the Stanley Gibbons catalog for the northern Caribbean territories, the Bahamas and Bermuda , the fourth edition of which was published in 2016 ^[12] .

The Postal Service and the Philatelic Bureau of Turks and Caicos are the official organization that distributes the philatelic products of the islands ^{[3] [4] [13]} .

In 2012, the administration of the Postal Service and the Philatelic Bureau of Turks and Caicos announced the start of a youth program, including plans to open philatelic clubs at schools and involve schoolchildren in collecting stamps. In October of the same year, it was planned to hold a philatelic exhibition of the stamps of Thurks and Caicos ^[4] .

• Postage stamps of the Turks. = The Postage Stamps of the Turks Islands. - L .: Stanley Gibbons, 1917. (English)
• Challis JJ Turks and Caicos Islands before 1950: postage stamps, whole things , mail history. = Turks Islands and Caicos Islands to 1950: Postage Stamps, Postal Stationery, Postal History. - Harrogate , UK: Roses Caribbean Philatelic Society, 1983. - (Handbook No. 6). (eng.)

• Stamps: Little Works of Art (English) . Collections . Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos Islands, British West Indies: . Circulation date August 22, 2017. Archived August 22, 2017.
• Turks and Caicos Islands Post Office (English) . My Profile . StampWorld.com. Circulation date August 22, 2017. Archived August 22, 2017.
• Identifying King George VI Stamps: Turks & Caicos Islands (Eng.) . Index of Stamp Description Websites . , IL , USA : KGVI Stamps - British Colonial Stamps. Circulation date August 22, 2017. Archived August 22, 2017.
• Turks and Caicos (1946–2015 ) . Printer Friendly Country / Region Price Lists . , MI , USA: Stanley Lisica LLC. - Turks and Caicos Islands stamps 1946-2006; comparative Scott and SG numbers. Circulation date August 22, 2017. Archived August 22, 2017.