The 
main island is Anguilla and the territory consists of a few other minor islands. The total land area is only around 100 square kilometers and the population is just over 13000. Industry is dominated by tourism. Anguilla was colonized by the English starting in 1650. In the early twentieth century, the British classified Anguilla along with St. Kitts & Nevis as a single overseas territory – the people of Anguilla was really opposed to this characterization and wanted it to be separate from St. Kitts & Nevis. 
It became a separate British territory in 1980 following two rebellions in 1967 and 1968 along with a period of self-declared independence between 1969 and 1971.The first stamps of Anguilla are overprints on St. Kitts & Nevis stamps of 1963 in two designs issued in September 1967– lighthouse in Sombrero, a very small island in the northern tip of Anguilla with a total acreage of less than 100 and loading sugar cane. The stamps are very valuable especially in higher denominations – the total catalog value of the first 16 stamps MNH exceeds $15000 while the used set catalogs for under $4000 (Scott #1 to #16). The overprint reads “Independent Anguilla”. Counterfeits are aplenty as the St. Kitts & Nevis stamps without the overprints (Scott #145 to #160) catalog for less than $20 MNH and around $10 used.
The first original designs were a set of 15 stamps depicting local scenes (Scott #17 to #31) and prominent structures in Valley, the capital city. This is a definitive set and catalogs for around $20 MNH
or used. The designs in this beautiful set are: Sombrero Lighthouse, St. Mary;s Church, Police Station, Old Plantation Hous Mt. Fortune, Post Office, Methodist Church, Airport, Plane sitting on sandy Anguillan terrain, Island Harbor, Map, Hermit crab & starfish, Hibiscus, Coconut harvesting, and the spiny lobster. The butterfly set of 1971 is another beautiful short-set of four stamps (Scott #123 to #126). They are also pretty affordable at around $10 MNH and about half that for used.
Separation issues of 1980 were the next significant issues. These came in two sets. One interesting aspect of the first set is that the designs came from different previous sets with “SEPARATION 1980” overprint. It is a long-set of 22 stamps (Scott #402 to #423) overprinted on the following previous issues – Scott #275, #278, and 280-290 from the beautiful varied scenes set of 1977-78 (Scott #275 to #290), Scott #344 serenade scene from the Christmas set () of 1978-79 (Scott #325 to #330 and Scott #331 to #336), and Scott #400 and #401 from the birds set of 1980 (Scott #398 to #401). The other separation set is an original design with separation related themes (Scott #424 to #428). Both are fairly affordable with the first set cataloging for around $30 for MNH or used and the second set cataloging at less than $2 either MNH or used.
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Last Updated: 07/2011.
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