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Erroneous flag depictions in official stamps of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Last modified: 2021-08-25 by rob raeside
Keywords: saint vincent and the grenadines | stamp | error | philately |
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Introduction

The stamps of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are not produced there at all and most of them don’t even get to the islands. They are produced by Sam Malmud’s Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation, New York, USA.
Nahum Shereshevsky, 12 Apr 1997

Saint Vicent is a strange case. Two apochryphe flags are known.
Jaume Ollé, 10 May 1997


Reported erroneous flag of 1969

Wrong flag in 1969 stamp
image by Željko Heimer and António Martins, 26 Nov 1999

A flag [different from the one in use] was erroneously shown on postage stamps and reported in a number of respected books to have been adopted. It was a plain blue flag with the 1912 coat of arms in the centre.
David Prothero, 04 Aug 1999

The blue flag with the arms in the center was never introduced, but accidently printed on a postage stamp (many stamps show wrong flags, as some coins show wrong arms!).
Ralf Stelter, 22 Oct 1998

Pederson’s book [ped80] says the blue flag with the arms in the center was adopted 27 October 1979. However, if I recall correctely, Whitney Smith said that this was never adopted as a national flag. It is, in effect, an error. Apparently the illustration on a postage stamp was erroneous or speculative.
Nick Artimovich 08 Jan 97


Reported erroneous readoption in 1995

1979-1985 flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
image by Željko Heimer, 29 Jan 1996

The stamp was issued on 8th May 1995 and got the Michel catalogue no. 3106. On this stamp you see the national flag from 1975 up to 1985, indeed.
Dieter Linder, 12 Apr 1997

It is obvious that the stamp artist utilized an out of date reference source for his depicting the flag of St. Vincent. As you may know, St. Vincent terminated its colonial ties to Great Britain in 1979 and continued to use its flag till 1985. The stamp artist figured that since most countries do not change their flag designs frequently, the flag that St. Vincent used when becoming independent was still appropriate. I will make sure that the art and production department will in the future request that the stamp artists be more careful when it comes to the designing of stamps featuring national flags.
Daniel Keren (of Sam Malamud, Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corp.)
quoted by Dieter Linder, 22 May 1997