Saint Helena, 1989

The first cards used in this small island in the south-central Atlantic, known to have been the site of Napoleon’s last exile, were a field test conducted by the British GPT. The three cards, with values of £ 1.50 (50 units, 500 runs), £ 3 (100 units, 1,000 runs) and £ 15 (500 units, 500 runs) are in fact the test cards with deep notch, used by GPT also for other countries, overprinted with the Cable & Wireless logo and their respective face values, and the codes on the back starting with 1CSHA, 1CSHB and 1CSHC. The field trial was successful and the GPT cards were issued until 2000, when the chip system was introduced on the island.