Armorial postage stamps from Jersey

[Arthur Radburn]

I came across these very attractive armorial stamps issued by Jersey, in the Channel Islands.

The first series, from 1976, featured the arms of the various parishes into which the island is divided. Here are the arms of Grouville and St Brelade :




The full series can be seen here : http://www.stampsoftheworld.co.uk/wiki/ ... tive_Issue

Between 1981 and 1988, Jersey issued stamps bearing the arms of prominent local families, such as Poingdestre and Remon :




The full series can be seen here : http://www.stampsoftheworld.co.uk/wiki/ ... tive_Issue

(I've put this in the 'College of Arms' section of the forum because the Channel Islands are dependencies of the UK, but I don't know to what extent the College's writ actually runs in the islands. The College does not appear to have had any part in designing the parish arms, which, reportedly [ http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/je-.html ], date from the early 1920s.)

[Jonathan Webster]

I know there was some resistance on the part of some Channel Island families to claims of heraldic authority within the Channel Islands. In fact the only instance I can think of of the College of Arms intervening heraldically in the Channel Islands was in differencing the Arms of Guernsey (before identical), from those of England, and that was fairly recently (the reign of George V). Like the other Crown Dependency, the Isle of Man, where only the Arms of the Island itself have been granted by the College (1996, and after many years of assumed use), and municipal and parish arms are assumed without reference to the College (although I can think of one recent example of a Manx family being granted Arms by the College), the Channel Islands seem to be a bit of an heraldic afterthought on the part of the College, which I think suits the Channel Islanders just fine.