MONTSERRAT

MONTSERRAT.

Map of the island and portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.
First stamp in a set of 15, isued on 15.10.1953.
Face value: 1/2 cent of British West Indies dollar.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 129.
- Scott No. 128.
- StampWorld No. 129.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 136.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 130.

Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. The island is in the Leeward Islands, which is part of the chain known as the Lesser Antilles, in the West Indies. Measures approximately 16 km (10 mi) in length and 11 km (7 mi) in width, with approximately 40 km (25 mi) of coastline. In 1493, in its second voyage, Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Montserrate, after the Virgin of Montserrat on Montserrat mountain (Catalonia). A number of Irishmen settled in Montserrat in 1632. From 1871 to 1958, Montserrat was administered as part of the federal crown colony of the British Leeward Islands, becoming a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. In 1995, Montserrat was devastated by the catastrophic volcanic eruptions of the Soufrière Hills, which destroyed the capital city of Plymouth, and necessitated the evacuation of a large part of the island. Many Montserratians emigrated abroad. The eruptions rendered the entire southern half of the island uninhabitable, and it is currently designated an Exclusion Zone with restricted access.