"During the past few years comparatively little has been published on the adhesives and obliterations of St. Christopher; no doubt this is due largely to the lack of official, data and this fact was emphasised as far back as 1891 in the 'West Indies' handbook (The Philatelic Society,.London. (now The Royal Philatelic Society, London), 1891, page,116.) from which the following note is based: -The 'Official Gazette of Saint Christopher' was first published in January 1879, and was discontinued in August, 1882, and contains but few notices of a postal nature. A notice appeared at the end of June 1879,stating that St. Christopher, like the other Leeward Islands, would be admitted into the Postal Union on the 1st July following. Mr. W.P. Pearce, the clerk in charge of the .Post Office at Basseterre, St.Kitts, writing to the late Sir Edward Bacon on December 9th,1890, stated that the provisional stamps were generally surcharged at the printing office of 'The Advertiser', but the surcharge 'Halfpenny 'on half the ld carmine, was applied at the Post Office. He further stated that Revenue stamps were never authorised to prepay postage, and that they had never been used for that purpose. Mr. Pearce added in his note to Sir Edward Bacon:- 'Postage and Revenue stamps combined were issued for sale in the Leeward Islands on the 1st of last month (November 1890), and all the former issues of postage and revenue stamps called in on that date.'
Contrary to general practice the adhesives will be dealt with later in these notes, the handstruck markings and cancellations being covered first.
St. Christopher was one of the last of the British West Indies group to issue stamps-in 1870, and from 1858 to 1860 the adhesives of Great Britain were used with the A12 (Basseterre) in bars cancellation. It is perhaps of interest to record that for an island with a total area of only 63 square miles (and even with only a population of just over 18,000 in 1939) so many types of handstamps and obliterations were needed. The fleuron type handstruck mark (which was in almost general use for several of the West Indian Islands during the pre-adhesive period) is the type most commonly found but prior to this two types of straight-line handstruck markings were used (a) "ST.KITTS" (1789), RL, Pl, and (b) "ST. KITT's (1790-91), RL, P2, both in black. The fleuron type for St. Chris topher exists in three diameters the large type, 33-34 mm., (1807-09), RL, P3; medium 281/2 mm. (1812-18), RL, P4,and the small fleuron, 25 mm., (1831-42), RL, P5, a11 in black. The earliest of Type l in my collection is JUL 9, 1807,with dates in 1813 and 1814 of Type 2,although I have noted dates in 1812. "ST. KITTS' in sans serif type, RL, P7, is found between 1844-61. A scarce handstruck type, usually found in red is the "ST.KITTS PAID" serifed circular dated(1859), RL, 1. I have this on cover to London dated MY 29 1855. "ST. KITTS PAID" circular undated, also in red, is recorded as being used during 1861-63. Other types of "ST.KITTS PAID in small circular frame in red and in black were employed from 1866 to 1889.A Ship letter mark (circa 1841)shows the inscription "ST.KITTS SHIP LETTER" in two lines. "ST.KITTS" within a single circle was employed when the regular St. Christopher stamps came into use. Covers bearing adhesives are few and far between; I have an external cover to Westbourne Park, London, dated St. Kitts, Dec, 27, 1874 arriving Paddington, Jan.14, 1875 which bears ten 1d.magenta CC, perf: 121/2."