Bahamas, NASSAU, The British Colonial Hotel, brass checks (2), c. 1935, palm-tree, revs. crown above panel, one with serial number 1 stamped on panel, both 32mm, 11.10g/6h, 10.79g/6h (Lyall 10; Spink Tn3); together with coloured metal badges of the Bahamas (2), one designed by a pair of schoolgirls [4]. Very fine £30-40

Second only illustrated. The British Colonial Hotel, formerly the New Colonial Hotel which had opened in 1923, was acquired in 1934 by Sir Harry Oakes (1874-1943), a Canadian multimillionaire, who renamed the business. Oakes, a naturalised Canadian who had discovered his own gold mine at Kirkland Lake, was murdered in a bizarre ritual at Westbourne, his house overlooking the ocean near Nassau, in July 1943, the day before he was due to meet the Duke of Windsor (formerly Edward VIII), governor of the Bahamas, for a round of golf. He left a fortune estimated at $300 million