Postage stamps and postal history of the Netherlands Antilles
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This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the postal areas Netherlands Antilles as well as its predecessor Curaçao. The area consisted of the islands Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius (now part of the Netherlands as postal area "Caribbean Netherlands") as well as Sint Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba (which each are separate postal areas).
Early mail service in the islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean consisted of carriage by casual ship, and a number of letters are recorded from this period. A British post office operated during the occupation of 1807 to 1815. In 1825, the Dutch government established a post office at Willemstad; from then until 1834 a packet operated between there and Hellevoetsluis. From 1842 to 1854, mail was carried by British packets, and after 1854 by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, until 1885.