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SAINT VINCENT GRENADINES BEQUIA LEADERS OF THE WORLD AUTOMOBILES AND TRAINS STAMP ISSUES AND VARIETIES

The Cars and Trains Stamp Issues for Bequia Produced by the Format International Security Printers

A Specialized Study of the Varieties and Quantities Produced

Would YOU store YOUR specialized stamps this way?

Example of how the Police Evidence Stock was Stored
Marquee for Golowe's Reference Site on the Format International Security Printers

In 1984 Saint Vincent Grenadines Bequia joined other commonwealth countries in the production and issuance of the Leaders of the World (LOW) Automobile and Locomotive series of stamps. Between 1984 and 1987 Bequia issued 7 sets of the Automobile series and 5 sets of the Locomotives series. This page will try to clarify how many sets were issued and produced and what varieties were also produced. I will show examples of the varieties including progressive color proofs, SPECIMEN overprinted varieties, Imperforates and yes the made for collector errors and where possible, genuine errors.

There was a huge controversy on the legitimacy of the production and sale of the varieties which ended up in court trials against the owners of the Format International Security Printers Ltd. and associated companies, their owners and some employees. The trials proved that the companies and owners had the sole right to reprint, and produce the varieties at their discretion for promotional programs and such despite the objections of the Tuvalu Philatelic Agency and others. A large portion of the progressives and other varieties were seized as evidence for the trials by the British Metropolitan Police and held by the same until 2008 when they were finally released back to the original owners. See the above image as an example of the cruel way the material was stored. We are lucky it survived! Representatives for Tuvalu went through the material and confiscated some for destruction but much was left and now these varieties are available to the collecting community to add to their topical and specialized collections. As for the material from St. Vincent, St. Lucia etc;, it was released back without tampering.

The valuation of the material has been grossly under valued because of the stigma produced by a few agencies, clubs and ex-employees and some dealers over the past 20+ years instilling in the collecting community the idea that there are "millions" out there hidden away in warehouses, attics etc. This is NOT the case and with the evidence I now have, I can now show this to be a huge exaggeration on the facts.

I will present each set as it was issued and show examples of some of the varieties. Either I have exact documents proving what was produced or I will use existing documentation which shows the general practices used for ordering and printing of the varieties which shows the general consensus of quantities produced and if possible...what still exists. As (and if) more information and documents are discovered, it will be added to this study for reference to collectors.

Through evaluation of the documents I have in my possession and the common practices of the printer All sets of LOW Cars and Trains fall under the same consensus of quantities produced. We know that most issues for Saint Vincent Grenadines Bequia were reprinted once except the last Locomotives series and the last Automobiles series. The standard was the same for all that 21,000 normal sets were reprinted for the PDC. General invoices and documents show that original orders for many stamp sets outside the Leaders of the World Series and including the LOW series as well ranged from 15,000 to 25,000 sets for Saint Vincent. At that time the PDC had a set allotment printed for resale via outside stamp selling entities. The allotment was generally 2/3 of the given original orders. The calculation of 21,000 for Saint Vincent appears over and over and is an easy quantity to break down for the allotment. 21,000 went to the Saint Vincent Philatelic Bureau and 14,000 went to the PDC's outlets. So I will base on the higher figure that a total of 75,000 sets were produced for Bequia. I show basis for this below.

There is a difference with Eastern Hemisphere countries as there was also an allotment of the regular issued stamps that was added to the issues sent to the PDC. These were called "GOOD OVERS" which was a supplemental stock or extra number of sheet runs (possibly to compensate for any errors) in the main run of reprints.

At the time of original printing some Progressive color Proofs and varieties were produced. These were usually in what I call 5-stage or 6-stage sets. The 5-stage sets include the yellow and black colors combined stage. The 6-stage sets have no all colors with no inscriptions stage. The 7-stage sets are the reprints for all the series up until late 1986 when the 7-stage sets became the norm. All presentation folders have the reprints. The reasons for the reprinting were that the earlier printings were from press sheets of which very few were saved. The reprinting was done to produce limited quantities of varieties for collectors to buy at affordable prices to enhance their collections. The majority of reprints come from cut panes. Storage of press sheets, which are very large, proved to be from the earlier versions not viable and so almost all the reprints were cut into panes for ease of storage.

The standard printing was set for all reprints.

3,000 sets of 7-stage progressive color proofs.
5,000 sets of imperforate stamps.
2,000 sets of specimen overprinted stamps

In most cases 1,000 sets of imperforate specimen overprinted stamps and 3,000 sets of misperfed or missing color "errors" were also produced. Of them, most now appear to have been destroyed.

Most all specimen overprinted stamps, imperforate stamps and errors were all printed at the time of reprinting as allowed by the "reprint agreement". In some cases we are finding that the specimen overprinted stamps are in two versions thus showing for certain older series one type already was printed. The majority have finite numbers. With Tuvalu it was agreed to allow them to confiscate what they deemed as errors. Progressive color proofs are not errors but they confiscated and destroyed many of them before they could be saved. Most all imperforate specimen overprinted sets and quite a few imperforates and even some of the normal specimen overprinted sets were also taken. I do not know why they did not take all of them but theorize that because the evidence taken was so large, I am talking about many thousands of panes, that they just simply missed them. The evidence was just thrown into police evidence bags with no regard to the philatelic preservation what so ever! Thus sorting through the material was quite difficult. Again view the example shown at the top of the page. Try sorting through several hundred of those!

A NOTE ON THE SAINT VINCENT VARIETIES

For Saint Vincent it appears all material was retained and given back to the owner. Sadly because of poor storage damage did occur to some. Most was not damaged severely luckily so we have them today. Based on documents, the St. Lucia holding and purchases from the Saint Vincent holding I can solidly affirm quantities even though the Saint Vincent/Nevis side was auctioned off in bulk and subsequently placed into random lots and scattered around the world! Many of the progressive color proofs on the St. Vincent side may never be reunited with their counterparts because of the random way they were sold off for quick sales. I on the other hand have done the work and organized and counted all the St. Lucia and Tuvalu side and it will be sold in an organized and knowledgeable manner.
I wish to note that certain series from St. Vincent have two different specimen overprints. This shows us that a limited number of one version of the overprint were printed in the original printing which usually ranged 1,000 of which 565 were sent to the U.P.U. The reprints are of another version of the overprint. This appears to have happened only in a few cases. More research is needed here.

A NOTE ON THE MADE FOR COLLECTOR ERRORS

I have obtained some of the progressive color proof panes involved in the making of the errors. It really was a quite simple process of splitting a color into two different panes and then not running one of the panes through the full printing process thus creating the error of missing color. This technique was a little bit more advanced than the method of just not using a full color in the process and produced some interesting novelty errors such as pink trains etc.

The production of made for collector errors for the LOW Automobiles and Locomotives series was not as massively produced as some articles and rumors would like you to believe. Yes, if you study the documents you can see that the four values on the uncut press sheets were ordered but with the release of the Saint Vincent and Nevis side of the police evidence we are now finding that apparently only one value was actually saved from the big sheet runs in most cases. There are a couple series from the 1986 sets from some of the Eastern Hemisphere countries that appear all four values or most of them at least were saved. I base this on what has been found available on the internet. As far as the misperfed or shifted perf varieties, very few are on the market leading us to believe either most were destroyed or they possibly are stored. One of the purposes of these pages is to show the numbers produced so if at any time in the future any appear, collectors like you and me will know that they are not great rarities and one should not pay out a lot of money for them. $3-5.00 is all they are worth and only as a novelty or as an interesting addition to a collection.

I would also like to note that evidence shows that stamps with missing denominations and or country names are not made for collector errors at all! They had a purpose. Again in error they were added to the over exaggerated numbers of "errors" or "funnies" as some call them calculated by the articles and rumors spread to the collecting community.

I have created a special page with tables of links showing examples of the various progressive panes used to create the stamps including some of the made for collector errors. The links will take you to pages showing the progressive color proof panes and a closeup image of specific values from the different series to help collectors define which proof belongs to which series and value.

View the SPECIALIZED Bequia Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives Progressive Color Proofs Page here.View the SPECIALIZED Bequia Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives Progressive Color Proofs Page here.

LET'S GET STARTED!

1st Series Railway Locomotives issued February 22, 1984
1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) Stamps

75,000 sets of the normal perforated issues were produced.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) Imperforate SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

1,000 imperforate specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices.It is almost certain all values have been saved of this variety.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices. 3,000 more exist if counting from the Progressive Color Proofs

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general printing practices. It appears there are exceptions to this rule with Bequia. The seven stage sets were randomly sold which were found in the police evidence stock.
Many partial sets are now appearing. At present only the 5c, 25c, 35c, and 45c values appear to have been in the police evidence stock.

The 5c, 25c, 35c, and 45c values can also be found in five stage sets. These sets are missing the ALL COLORS stage.
Note that the yellow and black are combined on one stage which is an older method used for progressive color proofs. please see image below.
1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) 5 Stage Progressive Color Proof Stamps

This ties in with the missing denomination and country name variety which would be the ALL COLORS stage in the progressive process.
As we can see by the yellow and black stage this is evidence of the process.
Because of this variation to the progressive color proof sets I can assert that there were two printings of them. The first being the 5 stage with additional ALL COLORS missing denomination variety and the 7 stage sets found in the police evidence stock. It is certain that the 7 stage sets are the reprints

The 1c, 10c, $1.50, and $2.50 values exist in yet another form of progressives. The 6 stage set. Please see example below.
1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) 6 Stage Progressive Color Proof Stamps

Please notice that the BLACK stage of the progressives does not have the denomination nor the country name in the inscriptions. This substantiates evidence that the missing denominations are not errors at all.

This is more evidence against the articles and rumors of many thousands of errors being produced by the printer as they would also have been added to the count and classified as errors.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of gutter pairs that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare. Cross gutters even rarer.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) Imperforate Missing Country Name and Denomination Stamps

It is unknown at present how many of the missing denomination varieties still exist. If they WERE made for collector errors then they would have followed the same printing practices producing 3,000 pairs. None are being sold with the progressives noting these are imperforate. No perforated versions are available on the market.
If they exist in perforated form then standard reprinting practices would have produced 3,000 pairs also.
All of the 1st series train issues for Bequia exist this way.

Evidence is showing that the denomination and country name were omitted so the series could be used by an alternative country. It would be quite easy to add a country name and different denominations to them.
There are numerous issues produced by the Format International Security Printers which were made this way JUST for these purposes. Several countries were left without denomination which was added at a later date as they were changing postal rates frequently.

More evidence that this is the case is that no invoices nor orders exist requesting this type of "error" to be made.
The production of these ties in with the evidence explained above for the different progressive color proof sets that exist.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (1st series) Missing Yellow Error Stamps

It is unknown at present how many missing yellow error stamps still exist. They ARE made for collector errors and they would follow the same printing practices of producing 3,000 pairs. The 1c value also exists this way. All three known values were printed on one of the press sheets. Thus probably the $1.50 value also exists this way. The values from the other press sheet do not exist with this error.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 1st Locomotives series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known on the market.
At this time, no other errors are available on the market.

1st Series Automobiles issued September 14, 1984
1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (1st series) Stamps

75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (1st series) SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (1st series) Imperforate SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

1,000 imperforate specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (1st series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.All values still exist in this form.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (1st series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general printing practices. All values exist in this form.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (1st series) Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of gutter pairs that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare. Cross gutters even rarer.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 1st Automobiles series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known on the market.
At this time, no errors are available on the market.

2nd Series Railway Locomotives issued November 26, 1984
1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (2nd series) Stamps

75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (2nd series) SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted sets seen on the market at present. 1,000 were produced.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (2nd series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets produced as limited printing according to general reprinting practices.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (2nd series) Proof Presentation Cards

The number of proof presentation folders that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only these values are available on the market at this time.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (2nd series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general printing practices. These are appearing on the market now as all values were found in the police evidence stock and were randomly sold.
Many partial sets are appearing. All values of the 2nd series Locomotives exist this way.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (2nd series) Imperforate Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of imperforate gutter pairs that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. Cross gutters even rarer.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as all but possibly one have been broken for gutters such as these.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (2nd series) Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of gutter pairs that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare. Cross gutters even rarer.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 2nd Locomotives series.
It is probable that they were produced but they may be destroyed.
At this time, no errors are available on the market.

2nd Series Automobiles issued December 19, 1984
1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (2nd series) Stamps

75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (2nd series) SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted sets seen on the market at present. 1,000 were produced.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (2nd series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (2nd series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general printing practices. All values exist this way.

A NOTE on THESE

I have noticed that the 5c, 10c, 20c, and 25c values which were all printed on one uncut press sheet exist in the 7 stage progressive color proof format. The 75c, $1.00, $2.50, and $3.00 values which were all printed on another uncut press sheet seem to only exist in 6 stage format. The ALL COLORS stage is missing. It is unknown why they are missing. The black inscription progressive color proofs all have the country name and denomination unlike the 1st Locomotives series ruling out that reason. They are not like the 1st Automobiles series which had the yellow and black progressives and no ALL COLORS ones. So, at this time the answer is unknown.

1984 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (2nd series) Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of gutter pairs that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare. Cross gutters even rarer.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 2nd Automobiles series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known on the market.
At this time, no imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted nor errors are available on the market.

3rd Series Railway Locomotives issued February 1, 1985
1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (3rd series) Stamps

75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

POSSIBLE IMAGE COMING SOON

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to the general reprint practices. No imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted sets seen on the market at present. 1,000 were produced.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (3rd series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets imperforate produced as limited printing according to general reprint practices.

A 3rd series Fake 25c Proof Presentation Card
1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (3rd series) Fake 25c Proof Presentation Card

A progressive color proof presentation card I found available on the market. These were produced by the Hermann E. Seiger Stamp Company based in Germany.

Front Cover of a 3rd series Fake Proof Presentation Card
Front Cover of 1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (3rd series) Fake Proof Presentation Card

They are not official presentation folders and had nothing to do with the Format Printers. Note they are not signed.
This stamp dealer had no authority to approve or disapprove anything in regards to these stamps.
This stamp dealer produced these during the time that the stamps were becoming quite popular to collect. I consider these to be fake produced folders clearly made to profit from unsuspecting collectors at the time. The proofs are authentic but the folders are not!
Because of the design of the folders implying they are official presentation folders having the color chart with printed approvals (the "ok") on them and such clearly mimicking the official folders these clearly show intent to deceive by this dealer. Therefore I would suggest that buyers be wary of purchasing these type of collectibles from this company.
And as for them being one of the largest stamp dealers "in the world"...well I guess fooling collectors with items like this is possibly how they gained that status. Threaten if you like...the proof is in the pudding.
The 25c value is all I have found.....so far. No progressives as sets found showing the possibility that this company acquired all that existed at the time.

It is interesting how such things appear to be "swept under the rug" by these large dealers and fine members of the PTS isn't it? Try to Google any of these and you will find there is no references to them at all...until now.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (3rd series) Proof Presentation Cards

The number of proof presentation cards that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only these values are available on the market at this time.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (3rd series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general printing practices. These two values are the only ones available on the market at this time.
They are not available through the police evidence stock. Possibly the only two surviving values in this form. Only found in this 5 stage format.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (3rd series) Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of gutter pairs that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare. Cross gutters even rarer.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 3rd Locomotives series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known on the market.
At this time, no imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted nor errors are available on the market.

3rd Series Automobiles issued June 25, 1985
1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (3rd series) Stamps

75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (3rd series) SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted sets seen on the market at present. 1,000 were produced.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (3rd series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (3rd series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general printing practices. It appears only the four lower values exist this way.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (3rd series) Gutter Pair Stamps

Again, the number of gutter pairs that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare. Cross gutters even rarer. None offered at this time.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 3rd Automobiles series.
At this time, no errors are available on the market.

4th Series Railway Locomotives issued September 26, 1985

I have discovered recently created (2014) forgeries of this issue! Fake imperforate sets are on the market!
Don't get ripped off! View this page to define and avoid them.

1985 Saint Vincent Bequia 4th Series Locomotives Fake StampsView the FAKE Saint Vincent Bequia 1985 4th Series Locomotives Stamps here. 1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (4th series) Stamps

75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

POSSIBLE IMAGE COMING SOON

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (4th series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets produced as limited printing according to general reprinting practices. All values exist this way.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (4th series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to printing practices. At present the 25c, 55c, 60c and 75c values are known to exist this way.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (4th series) Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of gutter pairs and cross gutters of these that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most or all would have been broken for gutters such as these.
At present only the imaged gutter pairs appear to be on the market.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 4th Locomotive series.

4th Series Automobiles issued September 26, 1985

I have discovered recently created (2016) forgeries of this issue! Fake perforated sets are on the market!
Don't get ripped off! View this page to define and avoid them.

1985 Saint Vincent Bequia 4th Series Automobiles Fake StampsView the FAKE Saint Vincent Bequia 1985 4th Series Automobiles Stamps here. 1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (4th series) Stamps

75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (4th series) SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted sets seen on the market at present. 1,000 were produced.

1985 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (4th series) Gutter Pair Stamps

Again, the number of gutter pairs that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare. Cross gutters even rarer.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 4th Automobiles series.
At this time, no imperforates, progressive color proofs nor errors are available on the market.

5th Series Automobiles issued January 29, 1986

I have discovered recently created (2016) forgeries of this issue! Fake perforated and imperforate sets are on the market!
Don't get ripped off! View this page to define and avoid them.

1986 Saint Vincent Bequia 5th Series Automobiles Fake StampsView the FAKE Saint Vincent Bequia 1986 5th Series Automobiles Stamps here. 1986 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (5th series) Stamps

75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

1986 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (5th series) SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted sets seen on the market at present. 1,000 were produced.

POSSIBLE IMAGE COMING SOON

5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.

1986 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (5th series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general printing practices.
Here I show all six values to show that the two low values are in 7 stage format whereas the four higher values are in the 6 stage format. I do not know why this is but it ties with the format of the uncut press sheets. The two low values were printed on one press sheet and the four higher values were printed on another one. Possibly errors were produced for the four high values and destroyed along with the ALL COLORS stage. Or possibly the ALL COLORS stage was lost or destroyed by accident. We may never know. There are numerous cases of this with the progressives.

1986 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (5th series) Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of gutter pairs and cross gutters of these that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most or all would have been broken for gutters such as these.
At present only the imaged gutter pairs appear to be on the market.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 5th Automobiles series.
At this time, no errors are available on the market.

6th Series Automobiles issued December 23, 1986
1986 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (6th series) Stamps

75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

1986 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (6th series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.

1986 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (6th series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general printing practices.
Here I show all six values to show a difference again. All values are in 6 stage format except the 90c value which is in the 5 stage format. I do not know why this is. Again possibly errors were produced for them in some way. The ALL COLORS stage was lost or destroyed by accident or on purpose. We may never know why. There are numerous cases of this with the progressives.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 6th Automobiles series.
At this time, no SPECIMEN overprinted, gutter pairs nor errors are available on the market.

The following two sets were printed in a new format. Printed in panes of ten pairs. The printing was done only once and thus the status of quantities of normal printed stamps is lower and is based on the original print invoices imaged on other St. Vincent pages.
The catalog pricing is incorrect for these two sets. They are rarer than all the others in normal state.
Because Stanley Gibbons does not list them with numbers and because Scott Catalog lists them in bulk with generalized values based on face value I must assert that these two sets should be valued at a much higher premium.
The progressive color proofs and error stamps are not noted on the invoices but were produced at the same time.
Basing on the availability of the panes sold by CityCollectibles which for the panes of 10 extended farther and as of May 2013 they were still selling smaller lots of them I believe the production of the sets of progressives was increased.

7th Series Automobiles issued July 22, 1987
1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (7th series) Stamps

21,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (7th series) SPECIMEN Overprinted Stamps

2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general printing practices.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (7th series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general printing practices.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (7th series) Imperforate Scott 94 Special Green Trial Color Stamp

This is considered to be a special trial proof of green color on the 20c value. It is not an error as you can see all colors are there.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (7th series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

5,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to new printing practices.
All values are in 6 stage format. The ALL COLORS stage was lost or destroyed by accident or on purpose. We may never know why. There are numerous cases of this with the progressives.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (7th series) Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of gutter pairs and cross gutters of these that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most or all would have been broken for gutters such as these.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Automobiles (7th series) Scott 121 Special $10.00 Gold Stamp Pair

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered rare.
The stamp pair is the $1.75 value with changed value to $10.00 and made from embossed 22k gold foil. Not listed in catalogs.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 7th Automobiles series.
At this time, no errors are available on the market.

5th Series Railway Locomotives issued November 16, 1987
1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (5th series) Stamps

21,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (5th series) Imperforate Stamps

5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general printing practices.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (5th series) Progressive Color Proof Stamps

5,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to new printing practices. All values exist this way.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (5th series) Gutter Pair Stamps

The number of gutter pairs and cross gutters of these that exist is unknown but should be considered very rare.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most or all would have been broken for gutters such as these.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (5th series) Scott 11 Missing Red Error Stamp

The number of the imperforate 25c missing red error pairs that exist is unknown. Printing practices would make the production at 1,000 imperforate pairs of which I have seen them for sale on the market. No perforated versions have been seen.

1987 Bequia Leaders of the World, Locomotives (5th series) Scott 24 Missing Yellow Error Stamp

The number of the perforated 75c missing yellow error pairs that exist is unknown if they exist at all. Printing practices would make the production at 5,000 perforated pairs of which I have seen none for sale on the market. 3,000 imperforate versions exist as they were produced along with the progressive color proofs. It is possible the perforated versions were destroyed or never made.
It was created using a bit more advanced process than the earlier method of just not adding one color.
Another humorous stamp. A pink train? Come on!

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 5th Locomotive series.

As of May 27, 2012 the four low values of the 1st series, all values of the 2nd series, and all values of the 5th series Locomotives varieties have been made available from the police evidence stock and sold on eBay.
The seller has sold them all.
Several other sources have some of the other values. No automobiles have been offered via the police evidence stock but are available elsewhere at this time. Many imperforates and specimen overprinted stamps are also only found from other sources.The perforated specimen overprinted pairs for the 1st through 5th Automobile series apparently were found in the police evidence stock as they were also made available for sale.

This concludes this study of the varieties produced for the Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives series issued by Saint Vincent Grenadines Bequia. I hope that this clarifies the point that the stigma that millions were made of each issue is completely false and should be ignored by collectors and dealers of these issues. Because of a few biased and exaggerated opinions and written articles on these issues of which they have no evidence to back their claims the LOW stamp issues and varieties have been under valued and shunned by many for years. Sometimes the "experts" are not such experts as they have not completed the research needed to verify their claims.
I have, and this is for you.

Your friend and fellow collector and researcher,
JLowe

References taken from:
Stanley Gibbons Windward Islands and Barbados
Scott Catalog
Inventory list for the Format Archive by Robson Lowe
Documents obtained from the trial exhibits
Actual materials from the police evidence used in the trials
Online research
Documents obtained from the printers files that still exist
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