The Chagos Islands are now back in the hands of..., well Mauritius, or they will be in 99 years time or so.
The islands are remote and extremely strategically important.
Their current population is almost entirely military, courtesy of the US/UK air base on Diego Garcia that represent their main utility to those two countries.
A further remnant of the British Empire has passed on, though the base will stay for the duration of a 99-year lease.
A small but very important set of land masses in the Indian Ocean.
Stamps and sovereignty
It's rare for stamps to feature in the hard news, but in 2021 they made headlines because of these tiny islands.
To the UK Government, this was the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).
It's hard to imagine the 3,000 or so military personnel there producing much in the way of post, but what they did was stamped with BIOT stamps.
But in August 2021 the Universal Postal Union banned the stamps worldwide.
The BBC reports the 2021 banning of BIOT stamps by the Universal Postal Union.
Chagos Islands would now bear Mauritian stamps.
The status of the islands was fairly well established in legal and moral terms.
They had been part of Mauritius.
But as the imperial age ended after World War II, the UK struck a deal with the US to allow an American base on an uninhabited territory in the Indian Ocean.
But there wasn't really one.
Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago, had a small population, but even that was too much and a very ugly process of "depopulation" began - at one point, dogs owned by the island's inhabitants were killed.
In the 1960s, the UK bought the islands from Mauritius and sealed the deal with the US, getting a discount on nuclear submarine missiles as a result.
An airstrip is the reason the islands are controversial.
And now, that deal has ended.
British Indian Ocean Territory Stamps
The Chagos Archipelago was enountered by Portuguese mariner Vasco da Gama in the 16th Century.
The French grabbed it as a possession of Mauritius, which they called Isle De France.
Slaves were used to plantation farm coconuts.
And in 1814, the Treaty of Paris, which ended the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars handed Mauritius over to the UK with a handful of other French overseas territories.
And in 1840, the British invented adhesive stamps, the penny post, and the modern postal world as we know it.
Rarities and remoteness
Mauritius is well-known to most stamp collectors.
It was the first Empire territory outside Great Britain to issue its own stamps.
Those stamps are legendary rarities.
They were issued in 1847, were engraved on the island, and were inscribed with Post Office Mauritius. Many of them (from a run of around 500 in two values, 1d and 2d) were stuck on envelopes carrying invitations to a governor's ball.
The best example sold for about $4 million in 1993.
The $4 million envelope, at the time of sale in 1993, the most expensive single philatelic item in the world.
They're quite simple compared to the stamps that were being produced back in the UK.
This pattern continues, and these "primitives" are highly valued.
An 1848 issue was inscribed "Post Paid".
Although somewhat unsophisticated in execution, these early Mauritius stamps are incredibly sought after by collectors. You can buy this example now.
An 1859 issue was so poorly engraved that French collectors nicknamed the portrait of Victoria, "the monkey's head".
The last locally produced stamps came out in 1859.
After that Perkins, Bacon & Co (who printed the Penny Black) were enlisted and stamps of a type used in several other British territories were printed for the island.
This run continued until 1902.
Through the 20th century, definitive stamps were fairly unremarkable.
From 1950, the island started to print more locally derived designs, with colourful graphics perhaps designed to attract junior stamp collectors.
As we've seen, British Indian Ocean Territory was created as the UK left Mauritius.
Stamps were issued from 1968.
Many are large and colourful and feature local interest subjects like marine life as well as British ceremonial occasions.
Buy British Indian Ocean Territory stamps now
As an incredibly small territory these stamps do already have a small rarity value. They can reach several pounds in value rather then the few pence that are common for many modern issues.
Standouts include this imperforate error from the 1968 to 1970 issue, that you can own here.
Rare and valuable British Empire and Commonwealth stamps for sale
Paul Fraser Collectibles is one of the largest stamp dealers in the world.
