Caribbean Netherlands 2016 First Lighthouse Stamps

There has been some confusion (in my mind, at least) about the Dutch islands in the Caribbean. These islands were formerly parts of the Netherlands Antilles which was dissolved in 2010. Now, St. Maarten, Aruba and Curaçao are autonomous countries and along with the Netherlands make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba are now “special municipalities” of the Netherlands. Still confused? Don’t worry. What this means is that St. Maarten, Aruba and Curaçao now issue stamps under their own names while Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba issue stamps under the name of Caribbean Netherlands. See Wikipedia if you want to try to figure this all out.

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The Caribbean Netherlands issues very few stamps and on 17 October 2016 it issued the first series that show lighthouses. It is a set of three sheetlets each with a single stamp perforated in the shape of each of the “BES” islands. The lighthouses shown are stylized and show the location on the islands.

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The St. Eustatius stamp shows the location of Oranjestad lighthouse located at the west central part of the island and is the only lighthouse on that island.

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The location of St. John’s lighthouse is shown on the Saba stamp. It is located on a communications tower at the southwest part of the island.

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The Bonaire stamp features no less than six lighthouses: Kralendijk lighthouse near the port of the same name on the west coast of Bonaire, Klein Bonaire Lighthouse located at the west end of Klein Bonaire Island, Punt Vierkant Lighthouse on the main island south of Klein Bonaire Island, Ceru Bentana Lighthouse located near the north end of the main island, Boca Spelonk Lighthouse at the east end of Bonaire and Lacre Punt Lighthouse near the south end of Bonaire.

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