Danish West Indies
The Danish West Indies was a Danish colony consisting of three islands in the Caribbean. In 1917 they were sold to the US and renamed as the US Virgin Islands.
Heraldry
The colony or the individual islands never were granted arms. The arms shown above are sometimes seen as a symbol for the islands, but had no official status. The arms above show the three islands represented by palm trees under a sun.
At the West Indian Exhibition in the Industrial Association in 1904, a picture was placed above the entrance to the exhibition showing the above arms. This symbolism of a purely decorative nature was used as a coat of arms at the Colonial Exhibition in Tivoli in 1905, on a par with the emblems of the three other colonies, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
Later, a similar shield, proposed by State Archivist Thiset, was placed among the coats of arms in the banquet hall of Copenhagen City Hall. This shield here bears three green islands, each with a palm tree and a Danish flag in a silver field with three blue wavy lines, see image below:
Of other older approaches to coats of arms around 1830 the General Government on St. Croix used as a badge a crowned cross of the same design as the central cross of the Royal Coat of Arms. This badge was also used some larger pieces of furniture from this time in the St. Croix Government House and was also placed on the hilt of the sabres with which the then St. Croix militia was equipped with. The badge is obviously an allusion to the name of the island. The badge was never used as a coat of arms.
The islands also issued stamps, but none of these showed arms. Coins and banknotes were issued since the late 18th century, but only showed the Danish National arms, a ship and/or the monogramme of the ruling King.
In 1906 it was proposed to use as arms a silver cross on a blue field (based on the St. Croix badge), as a comparable design as for the three other colonies (all had a silver symbol on a blue shield). This proposal was never adopted.
Literature:Ramsing, 1906; Thiset, 1914
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