Saint Kitts and Nevis

Here is another cover from the Caribbean; this time from an even smaller island nation called the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. These two islands are located in the Leeward Islands, in the West Indies. It is the smallest sovereign nation in the Americas, in both area and population. Saint Kitts and Nevis were amongst the first islands in the Caribbean to be settled by Europeans. Saint Kitts was home to the first British and French colonies in the Caribbean.

The islands are also known as St. Christopher and Nevis because St. Kitts was originally called St. Christopher. In the 17th century Kit, or Kitt, was a common abbreviation for the name Christopher, and so the island was often informally referred to as "Saint Kitt's island", which was further shortened to "Saint Kitts."

Unfortunately, the cover was soiled by markings from a permanent marker, which was probably applied to scratch out an incorrect routing code that was applied during sorting. If only the mail sorter got it right, then I wouldn't have this unsightly mark running across the bottom of my cover.