A rare set of former St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla postage stamps, overprinted Independent Anguilla in 1967, at the outset of the island’s Revolution, is among artifacts presented this week to Heritage Collection Museum.
The donor is Mr. Howard Parker, a former British soldier, who was assigned to Anguilla in 1970 following the invasion of the island the year before. He is on his second recent visit to the island of which he has lasting memories.
Mr. Parker was also on his second visit to Heritage Collection Museum on Monday, April 13, where he made the presentation to the Curator, Mr. Colville Petty. He explained the artifacts: “The presentation consists of one set of stamps, issued by St.Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla – that has been blanked out and overprinted Independent Anguilla. It is quite rare and has been certified as real. The second set is the mint set of the first stamp that Anguilla issued in its own right; and the third part of the presentation is a compendium of a few photos I had from the Road Bay Jetty that was built in 1970, showing the first ships that came in to the jetty.”
Mr. Parker added: “I thought I would like to show my appreciation to the people of Anguilla for their overwhelming friendliness shown to me in 1970, [and then] when I came back in January this year and again this time. So that is my thought behind the presentation.”
Replying, Mr. Petty thanked Mr. Parker for his thoughtfulness and said the artifacts were a useful addition to the collections at the museum.
