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

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

A Specialized Study of the Varieties and Quantities Produced

Would YOU store YOUR specialized stamps this way?

In 1984 Saint Vincent Grenadines Union Island 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 Union Island issued 4 sets of the Automobile series and 7 sets of the Locomotives series. This page will try to clarify how many sets were issued and produced and what varieties were also produced. We 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.

Here are examples of these invoices.

These two invoices are for the St. Vincent Grenadines Union Island 1984 Locomotives 2nd series low values

The "GOOD OVERS"
These three invoices are for two values of the Union Island 1985 Automobiles 2nd series

The "GOOD OVERS"
The SPECIMEN Overprints

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 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 Union Island Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives Progressive Color Proofs Page here.

LET'S GET STARTED!

1st Series Railway Locomotives issued August 9, 1984


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



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



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



The number of these proof presentation cards that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only the $2.00 value is available on the market at this time.



3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general reprinting practices. The seven stage sets are the reprints. They were randomly sold on eBay from the Saint vincent/Nevis holding which were found in the police evidence stock.
All the values were there in packs of panes found in the police evidence stock.

All 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 the older method used for original progressive color proofs. please see image below.



Because of this variation to the progressive color proof sets it proves that they were reprinted. The first being the 5-stage and then the 7-stage sets. The particular set imaged above was from the uncut press sheets.
The 5-stage sets are much rarer than the 7-stage sets. This is because they only come from uncut press sheets of which few were saved.



The number of these gutter blocks 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 Locomotives series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known available on the market.

2nd Series Railway Locomotives issued December 18, 1984


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



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



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



The number of these proof presentation cards that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only the $2.50 value is available on the market at this time.



3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general reprinting practices. The four high values in panes of 25 were randomly sold on eBay from the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding the same as the 1st series trains were sold.
Many partial sets are appearing now on the market. At present only the four high values of the 2nd series Locomotives exist this way.

A note on these

I have found that so far it appears only the four high values were in the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding. The four low values which are almost non-existent I found in a purchase of progressives from another source. These were in the 6 stage form (no final colors without inscriptions stage). I have discovered a variance to the progressives for this series though. It will be explained below.



The number of these gutter blocks 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.

A NEW VARIETY!

I have found two different varieties of the 2nd series locomotives issues. The color and the inscriptions are quite different. There was a second printing of them at the time of reprinting. At this time I want to show you that there is a definite difference in the printings which I have discovered in my purchases from the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding. Please view the images below.



In studying all the stages I conclude that they are consistent. In theory the same varieties will be found on perforated stamps of the series as well.
More details presented on the individual specialized pages for each value.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 2nd Locomotives series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known available on the market.

1st Series Automobiles issued January 4, 1985


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



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



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

POSSIBLE IMAGE COMING SOON

3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general reprinting practices. All values appear to exist in this form.



The number of these gutter blocks 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.

3rd Series Railway Locomotives issued March 25, 1985


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.



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



3,000 sets of 7-stage progressive color proofs produced according to general reprinting practices. At present no 7-stage sets available on the market. Due to the existence of the presentation folders shown below, it is proof that they were reprinted
They were not available through the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding sold on eBay. They are only found as individual sets in this 6 stage format at present. The 6-stage sets were taken from uncut press sheets of which few were saved.



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



The number of these gutter blocks 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 sets nor errors are available on the market.

2nd Series Automobiles issued May 20, 1985
Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 are on the market. Imperforate forgeries are on the market!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered Automobiles 2nd Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



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.



The number of these 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.



The number of these specimen overprinted gutter blocks and 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 most have been broken (if not all) 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, progressive color proofs nor errors are available on the market.

3rd Series Automobiles issued July 15, 1985
Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2015 are on the market. Forgeries of the normal issue are on the market!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered Automobiles 3rd Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



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.



Again, the number of these gutter blocks 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 imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted, progressive color proofs nor errors are available on the market.

4th Series Railway Locomotives issued January 31, 1986

Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 are on the market. They have the correct perf size!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered Locomotives 4th Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate specimen overprinted sets seen on the market. It is possible they exist but at this time none can be found. 1,000 printed according to reprint practices.



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



3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general reprinting practices. The four low values in panes of 25 were randomly sold on eBay from the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding the same as the 1st series trains were sold.
Many partial sets are appearing now on the market. At present only the four low values of the 4th series Locomotives exist this way.

A note on these

I have found that so far it appears only the four low values were in the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding. I have found The four high values in 7-stage form available through France International (Stamps by Themes) at a steep price. I found in a purchase of progressives from another source all values in the 6-stage form (no final colors without inscriptions stage). The 6-stage sets I was able to obtain came from uncut press sheets of which few were saved.
Please view the specialized pages for more details.



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.



The number of the perforated $3.00 missing yellow error pairs that exist is unknown. It is probable that the four high values from the 4th series exist this way because they are all printed on the same sheet but at present I have found only the $2.50 and $3.00 values this way. Printing practices would make the production at 3,000 perforated pairs of which I show the image of the $3.00 value above. No imperforate versions have been seen. This is a made for collector error.

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

4th Series Automobiles issued July 30, 1986
Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 are on the market. They have the correct perf size!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered Automobiles 4th Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



With the selling of the police evidence stock the specimen overprinted panes for the 4th series were released for sale on eBay around June 27th, 2012. They were sold out within 6 months.
2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted sets seen on the market at present.

POSSIBLE IMAGE COMING SOON

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



The number of these proof presentation cards that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only the $3.00 value is available on the market at this time.



Again, the number of these gutter blocks 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.



These are combo imperforate and perforated gutter pairs.
The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. Cross gutters extremely rarer.
Probably Full uncut press sheets do not exist any more in this form.

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

5th Series Railway Locomotives issued December 23, 1986

Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 are on the market. They have the correct perf size!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered Locomotives 5th Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



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



3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general reprinting practices. All values in panes of 25 were randomly sold on eBay from the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding the same as the 1st series trains were sold.
Many partial sets are appearing now on the market.

A note on these

I have found that all of the values in 7-stage form were in the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding. I found in a purchase of progressives from another source all values in the 6-stage form (no final colors without inscriptions stage). The 6-stage sets I was able to obtain came from uncut press sheets of which few were saved.
Please view the specialized pages for more details.



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 there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 5th Locomotive series.
At this time no specimen overprinted sets 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 we 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.
I have found in watching the sales of the progressive color proof panes from the police evidence stock that the sets produced must have been higher. Being easier to store in the new format may possibly be a reason. I theorize 5,000 sets were produced unlike the standard 3,000 sets earlier.

6th Series Railway Locomotives issued September 9, 1987


35,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



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



1,000 sets produced according to general reprinting practices. As the police evidence stock was sold the 15c, 40c, and 50c values exist this way.
It is unknown at present if other values still exist.



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



5,000 sets produced according to my estimate based on sales of the panes. All values exist this way.



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.



The number of the perforated 40c missing blue error pairs that exist is unknown if they exist at all. Printing practices would make the production at 3,000 perforated pairs of which we have seen none for sale on the market. 5,000 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.
Use of an 8th stage blue pane was involved. We will show this on a special page on the progressives.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 6th Locomotive series.

7th Series Railway Locomotives issued December 4, 1987


35,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



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



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



5,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to my estimate based on sales of the panes. All values exist this way.



Again, 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.



The number of the perforated 45c missing red error pairs that exist is unknown if they exist at all. Printing practices would make the production at 3,000 perforated pairs of which we have seen none for sale on the market. 5,000 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 interesting stamp. A green cab!

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 7th Locomotive series.

As of June 16, 2012 the 1st series, the four high values of the 2nd series, the four low values of the 4th series and all values of the 5th, 6th and 7th series Locomotives varieties of imperforates and progressive color proofs were made available from the police evidence stock being sold via eBay. Aside from a few random lots the seller has now sold out.

Several other sources have some of the other values. No automobiles have been offered via the police evidence stock but are available elsewhere. Many Imperforates and SPECIMEN overprinted stamps are also only found from other sources. This means there were no other series in the holding for St. Vincent Grenadines Union Island.

This concludes the study of the varieties produced for the Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives series issued by Saint Vincent Grenadines Union Island. 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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