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

The Cars and Trains Stamp Issues for Saint Vincent Grenadines 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 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 Saint Vincent Grenadines issued 3 sets of the Automobile series and 8 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 all issues for Saint Vincent Grenadines were reprinted once except the last two Locomotives 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 Saint Vincent Grenadines. 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 three invoices are for the St. Vincent Grenadines 1986 Locomotives 6th series

The SPECIMEN Overprints
The "GOOD OVERS"
This is the original print invoice for the St. Vincent Grenadines 1987 Locomotives 7th series


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". Therefore all of them 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 Saint Vincent Grenadines Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives Progressive Color Proofs Page here.
LET'S GET STARTED!

1st Series Railway Locomotives issued March 15, 1984


75,000 sets of the 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.



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



3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general original printing practices.



The number of these 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.



It is unknown at present how many of these were produced. If they followed the same printing practices then 3,000 pairs would have been made along with the progressives noting these are imperforate. No perforated versions are available on the market.
If they exist then standard reprinting practices would have produced 3,000 pairs also.
It is unknown if other values exist this way but as one can see from the cross gutter block the two values shown are from the same press sheet so it is logical to theorize that the 15c and 60c could possibly exist this way also.

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.

2nd Series Railway Locomotives issued October 9, 1984


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.



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



The number of these that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only the 5c value is available on the market at this time.



3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general printing practices. At present it seems only the four high values exist as progressives. Time will tell if the four low values exist this way.



The number of these 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.



It is unknown at present how many of these were produced. If they followed the same printing practices then 3,000 pairs would have been made along with the progressives noting these are imperforate. No perforated versions are available on the market.
If they exist then standard reprinting practices would have produced 3,000 pairs also.
It is unknown if other values exist this way but as one can see from the cross gutter block the two values shown are from the same press sheet so it is logical to theorize that the $1.50 and $3.00 could possibly exist this way also.

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 other errors are available on the market.

1st Series Automobiles issued November 28, 1984


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

POSSIBLE IMAGE COMING SOON

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

POSSIBLE IMAGE COMING SOON

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



The number of these 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 imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted nor progressive color proofs are available on the market.

3rd Series Railway Locomotives issued January 31, 1985


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



15,000 normal perforated Souvenir Sheets were produced.



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



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



The number of these 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.



It is unknown at present how many of these still exist. Standard reprinting practices would have produced 3,000 pairs.
It is unknown if the other values exist this way but as one can see from the cross gutter block shown all values are from the same press sheet so it is logical to theorize that the other values could possibly exist this way also. Judging from other errors though it is possible and likely the other values were destroyed.

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 progressive color proofs are available on the market.

2nd Series Automobiles issued April 9, 1985


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.



3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to general original printing practices. Yet none were sold from the police evidence stock.
The set imaged comes from an uncut press sheet. The uncut press sheets in general are very rare to unique, thus if this set came from a unique set it is very valuable indeed! I can find no others offered anywhere.



The number of these 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.

4th Series Railway Locomotives issued May 17, 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 as limited printing according to general reprinting practices.



3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to original printing practices. At present the 40c, 50c, and $2.50 values are known to 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.
At present none appear to be on the market.

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

5th Series Railway Locomotives issued September 16, 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.



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

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

3rd Series Automobiles issued February 20, 1986


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.

POSSIBLE IMAGE COMING SOON

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 15c and $1.00 values exist with missing blue errors. Standard reprinting practices would produce 3,000 pairs of them.

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

6th Series Railway Locomotives issued March 14, 1986


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 of each value.

POSSIBLE IMAGE COMING SOON

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



The number of these that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare.
Only the $1.00 and $2.00 values are available this way on the market at present time.



3,000 progressive color proof sets produced according to original printing practices. The top six values are known to exist this way. Status unknown on the two low values at this time.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 6th Locomotive series.
No errors appear to be available for this series at this time.

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 invoice imaged at the start of this page.
This is why catalog pricing is higher for these two sets. They are rarer than all the others in normal state.
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 March 2013 they were still selling smaller lots of them I believe the production of the sets of progressives was increased.

7th Series Railway Locomotives issued May 5, 1987
I have discovered recently created (2014) forgeries of this issue! Fake normal and imperforate sets are on the market!
Don't get ripped off! View this page to define and avoid them.

1987 Saint Vincent Grenadines 7th Series Locomotives Fake Stamps



21,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced according to the print invoice.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to print invoice.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to print invoice. At present time it seems only the progressive color proofs have the imperforate versions. Nowhere can we find the imperforate versions of the 7th series Locomotives for sale. All the above imaged values were taken from the progressive color proof sets available on the market. The 10c value is missing because even the progressive set has not been seen.
This could possibly tie with the made for collector error shown below as to why they are missing.



5,000 progressive color proof sets estimated to have been produced. The top seven values are known to exist this way. Status unknown on the 10c low value at this time.



The number of these that exist is unknown. Printing practices would make the production at 3,000 pairs.

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

8th Series Railway Locomotives issued August 26, 1987


21,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to print invoice. 1,000 sets of imperforates also produced. I have found four values in the imperforate specimen overprinted variety in the Saint Lucia holding. All the packs were unopened verifying the count for these.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to print invoice. At present time it seems only the progressive color proofs have the imperforate versions. Nowhere can we find the imperforate versions of the 8th series Locomotives for sale. All the above imaged values were taken from the progressive color proof sets available on the market.



5,000 progressive color proof sets estimated to have been produced. All values exist this way.



The number of the perforated 50c missing red error pairs that exist is unknown. Printing practices would make the production at 3,000 perforated pairs of which I have seen them for sale on the market. I estimate 5,000 imperforate versions exist as they were produced along with the progressive color proofs.



The number of the perforated $1.50 missing blue error pairs that exist is unknown. Printing practices would make the production at 3,000 perforated pairs of which I have seen none for sale on the market. I estimate 5,000 imperforate versions exist as they were produced along with the progressive color proofs. It is possible the perforated versions were destroyed.
It is kind of humorous in a way. A pink train? Maybe at Disneyland!

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 8th Locomotive series.

As of May 20, 2012 the 1st, four high values of the 2nd, 5th, the four high values of the 6th, all but the 10c value of the 7th, and the 8th series Locomotives varieties were made available from the police evidence stock and sold out on eBay. Several other sources have some of the other values. No automobiles were offered and only the progressives for the 2nd series are available elsewhere. Imperforates and specimen overprinted stamps are also only found from other private sources.

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