Sint Eustatius - CARIBISCH NEDERLAND

Sint Eustatius, also known locally as Statia, is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially “public body”) of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands. Sint Eustatius is immediately to the northwest of Saint Kitts, and to the southeast of Saba. The regional capital is Oranjestad. The island has an area of 21 square kilometres . As of January 2019, the population is 3,138, with a population density of 150 inhabitants per square kilometre. The official language is Dutch, but English is the "language of everyday life" on the island and education is solely in English. A local English-based creole is also spoken informally. Travellers to the island by air arrive through F. D. Roosevelt Airport. Formerly part of the Netherlands Antilles, Sint Eustatius became a special municipality within the Netherlands on 10 October 2010. Together with Bonaire and Saba it forms the BES islands. The name of the island, “Sint Eustatius”, is the Dutch name for Saint Eustace (also spelled Eustachius or Eustathius), a legendary Christian martyr, known in Spanish as San Eustaquio and in Portuguese as Santo Eustáquio or Santo Eustácio.

Sint Eustatius became a member of the Netherlands Antilles when that grouping originated in 1954. Unlike the other member islands, the people of St Eustatius did not vote to leave. In a referendum on 8 April 2005, 77% of voters voted to remain within the Netherlands Antilles, compared to 21% who voted for closer ties with the Netherlands. However, once the other islands decided to leave, meaning that the Netherlands Antilles would become defunct, the island council opted to become a special municipality of the Netherlands, like Saba and Bonaire. This process was completed in 2010. In 2011 the island officially adopted the US dollar as its currency.

Topographically, the island is saddle-shaped, with the 602 meter-high dormant volcano Quill (Mount Mazinga), (from Dutch kuil, meaning 'pit'—originally referring to its crater) to the southeast and the smaller pair of Signal Hill/Little Mountain (or Bergje) and Boven Mountain to the northwest. The Quill crater is a popular tourist attraction on the island. The bulk of the island's population lives in the flat saddle between the two elevated areas, which forms the centre of the island. The national parks of St. Eustatius, which comprise the Quill/Boven park, the Botanical Garden, and the Marine Park, are all under the control of the non-profit foundation STENAPA. Due to the fact that St. Eustatius is a volcanic island and its size is so small, all of the beaches on the island are made up of black sand/ volcanic sand. These volcanic sands, especially one of the more popular nesting beaches called Zeelandia, are very important because they serve as a nesting site for several endangered sea turtles such as: the green turtle, leatherback, loggerhead and hawksbill. Sint Eustatius has two national parks: The Sint Eustatius Marine National Park and the Quill/Boven National Park on land. Both are maintained by Sint Eustatius National Parks Foundation (STENAPA).

The three public bodies of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba started issuing postal stamps after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010. The islands form a separate postage region under the name Caribisch Nederland (English: Caribbean Netherlands). The first stamp issued showed the maps of the three islands. Stamps of similar design were issued in the other newly formed postage regions of Sint Maarten and Curaçao. The value of the current stamp is denominated in Netherlands Antillean guilders, but is expected to be replaced by US-dollar denominated stamps in 2011 when the legal currency of the islands changes. As of June 2011, new stamps are being issued by Post in US dollars. As of January 2014, Flamingo Communications N.V. has taken over postal services on the BES islands of the Dutch Caribbean. Since 2014, stamps are inscribed with the names of the individual islands.

These registered airmail envelopes posted from Oranjested, the capital city of St.Eustatius. The covers posted on October 24,2017 and I received  on November 29, 2017.