2017-01-17 Tue

Danish West Indies was the first United States Virgin Islands. The Danish colony was made of the islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John. The Danish West India Guinea Co. set up their colony in 1672 but the company rule ended in 1775. The King of Denmark-Norway took over the colony but slavery was ended in 1848 making administering the colony more expensive.

The islands were bought for $25 million in 1917 by the US to use it as a base for protecting the Panama Canal from German submarines at the Caribbean Sea. It was renamed as the United States Virgin Islands and is an unincorporated territory of the US today.

1856 was when the first stamps of the Danish West Indies were issued and the last one was issued in 1915. A set of nine Crown and Numeral definitive stamps were issued from the time period of 1874-79.