They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 05 Feb 2015 09:52:55am
Per Wikipedia: ...Redonda is uninhabited, except by seabirds and a herd of feral goats that manage to survive on the poor grazing on top of the island."
Just another of the lucrative investment opportunities awaiting the astute collector.
Here is the "ground floor" of which H. E. Harris bespoke:
Photo is from Wikipedia with the caption: "A small stone hut on the top of the island dates from the days when guano was mined there."
Remember all the "investment" advisors touting the Sierra Leone "Face on Mars" stamps?
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
Antigua had plans to open a resort on the island when the guano and phosphate mining were shut down. The idea to publicize this was to begin printing stamps in 1979 for the uninhabited island. At the time that this was beginning, I was a new issue dealer. I received letters from Antiguan tourism board (whatever it was called) that were franked with stamps from Redonda. The catch was that these letters were mailed from the UN in New York, and UN stamps paid the actual postage.
The problem with the plan for the resort was that the island had no natural harbor. The plans were doomed from the start.
Scott and Gibbons do not list the stamps of Redonda, but Gibbons does annotate them without value. Scott used to annotate them (listings appeared in the Scott Stamp Monthly at the time of "issue"), but deleted references to Redonda several years ago.
In 1980, Scott printed a specialty album for the stamps of Redonda. Funny that they did this solely for the money during a time that Scott was discontinuing its Specialty Album line. The 1970s and 1980s was not a good time for Scott with bad business decisions frequently being made. Anyway, I think the price for the album (pages only) was $10 plus shipping. I bought it, and still have it. The pages ran from 1979 to 1980. The listing of stamps from Redonda in Gibbons goes until 1991.
I have a cover with Redonda stamps but cannot find it. Redonda stamps were valid for postage in Antigua. They are really just Antigua stamps inscribed with the name Redonda.
"That was only for the first three sets issued in 1979. All subsequent issues were only inscribed "Redonda"."
I realize that; what I meant was that despite whatever they are inscribed, they are valid as postage in Antigua as legal tender stamps. The same goes for the stamps inscribed Barbuda or Barbuda-Antigua, they are valid anywhere in Antigua. The only difference is Barbuda island actually has a post office while Redonda does not.
Redonda first day covers had cancels inscribed "Redonda", but where cancelled at the philatelic bureau in St. John's Antigua.
APS life member of 25+ years 25 Mar 2015 04:41:01pm
re: Redonda???
If the Antigua Tourism Board, Post Office and/or government was financing the production of the Redonda stamps then they spent a lot of money on them. Disney stamps are designed by Disney Studios and they are not cheap to produce as Disney charges hefty licensing fees for use of their characters and their artists have to create the images for the stamps or other items being produced. I do have the Disney set in my Redonda collection.
They also produced a Charles and Diana wedding issue and I have that one on cover.
Thanks to all of you for the additional information about Redonda.
This past weekend I took some time to work on my Scott Specialty Album for Redonda. I ran across the catalog/sales list that I misplaced for Redonda stamps, and finally reworked the stamps into an organized group in catalog order for the stamps that are not included on the album pages. Looks nice and presentable now, and I have album pages for stamps that I don't yet have!