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Exceptional collection of Antigua Transit Censored covers with possibly unique usages.
Transit censorship in Antigua is one of the few areas of WWII censorship which has not been studied in depth. Its main duties were to monitor mail to and from Guadeloupe and Martinique, which was controlled by Vichy France. (Antigua was the first stop for planes going north from the French islands). Censors were transferred from Bermuda and elsewhere to meet these needs. They brought their labels with them, in the main UK PC90 labels, but some had labels made with the IB code included. Some of these censors were transferred back to stations such as Bermuda and altered the IB designation to reflect their new placement, i.e. IC in the case of Bermuda. There are rare covers in this collection which illustrate the movement of censors to and from Bermuda.
This is a wonderful opportunity to build a collection of very fine and rare covers which can be the basis of an exhibit and/or published article on a subject that has up to now been neglected.
There are 23 covers with UK labels, 9 of which have the IB code hand stamped in purple. One cover has the IB hand stamp crossed out and IC added in ink, this is possibly unique. There are 6 different examiner numbers represented with various types of labels.
9 covers are of the Form 167 type, 2 of which have IB handstamps. 1 cover from Argentina to Switzerland shows the use of the same label but in Bermuda.
4 covers are CL11 types with 2 different examiner numbers. One shows the IB crossed out and altered to IC showing that the examiner moved back to Bermuda.