The Virgin Islands King George VI stamps were printed from 1938 until about 1952. There are two different sets. The 1938 set was printed by Harrison & Sons using the photogravure method, which they also used for the 1938 Seychelles issues. The stamps tend to have less definition than the engraved versions. You will also note that there was a chalk coating used on the early and some later issues, and that substitute (non-chalky) paper was used during the war time issues. Another trait of the Harrison & Sons stamps is the way hinges tend to stick to the backs of the stamps and never come off. The 1952 set was only out for a short time and doesn't have any listed color shades.

The pages were created using information presented by W. J. W. Potter & Lt. Col. R. C. M. Shelton in their "The Printings of King George VI Colonial Stamps" which was published by Stamp Collecting Ltd. in December, 1952. The publication listed tables for each of the countries' issues that were included. The listings of "BKxx" was created to tie the Commonwealth numbers into the Potter & Shelton listings. They are unique to my collection, so won't tie into anything you might find familiar. So where you see BK01, it is CW 1 from the current catalogue. BK01N1 means it is not listed in Commonwealth.

The pages are from my collection, and are identified by the Commonwealth numbers only. The Gibbons, and Scott numbers are listed in the table below for reference. The page images were scanned in a larger size and at a higher resolution so you can more easily see the details used in viewing them. Feel free to select the page and let it download to your screen and save it to your hard drive for viewing. If you are using a PC, selecting the page will typically open it in Microsoft Photo Viewer (or whatever you are using as your default). From there you can enlarge the size for more close-up viewing. If you are using a phone - go find a PC or a Mac. The images are 1200 pixels wide and you will go mad trying to view them on your phone.

Please be patient if it takes a few minutes for each page to load.

This article was written to help you identify your stamps.
Please feel free to ask a question, or suggest a correction.