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Saint-Martin (Overseas Collectivity, France)

Flag of France - Image by Željko Heimer, 22 September 2001

Presentation of Saint-Martin
Reported flags of Saint-Martin

See also:

Presentation of Saint-Martin

The island of Saint-Martin is located north of Saint-Barthélemy and south of Anguilla. Its southern part, known as Sint Maarten, belongs to the Netherlands Antilles, whereas its northern part (52 sq. km, 28,518 inhabitants) belongs to France. Saint-Martin is an overseas community (collectivité d'outre-mer), as prescribed by Law of 21 February 2007, published in the French official gazette on 22 February 2007. This new status was approved by local referendum (95.5% yes) on 7 December 2003. Beforehand, Saint-Martin was a municipality forming, together with the municipality of Saint-Barthélemy, the third arrondissement (northern islands) of the overseas department of Guadeloupe.

Ivan Sache, 13 October 2007

Reported flags of Saint-Martin

Reported local flag of Saint-Martin - Official status unknown - Image by Christian Berghänel, 30 August 1998

This flag is reported as the flag of Saint-Martin by László Balough (A Világ Nemzetei - Zaszlók, címerek, térképek, adatok, 1994).

Christian Berghänel, 30 August 1998

The Saint-Martin flag shown above may allude to the Sint Maarten flag
- both flags are blue, red, white and yellow
- both flags have a Y design
- the yellow semi-circle in the Saint-Martin flag could match the sun (rising or setting) in the Sint Maarten flag.

Ole Andersen, 21 September 2000

In issue 21 of the vexillological bulletin edited by Balough (at some date between 1995 and 1997), the flag of Saint-Martin is shown as a light blue flag with a shield.

Jaume Ollé, 30 August 1998

According to Everett D. Emerson (The Flag Bulletin, [tfb] #218, p.172, 2004), this flag is spurious. He says that his cousin visited the island four times and reports never having seen this flag displayed on land or sea or even for sale. He adds, "One might speculate that the 'flag' as depicted was from an inaccurate verbal description of the legitimate [Dutch] Sint Maarten flag, that it was a hoax, or that it was an idea for a flag to be commercially marketed that never achieved usage.
Emerson traces the origin of the supposed St. Martin error to an anonymous author who wrote Eiropas Pilsetis I (Riga, 2001) [l9v01]. That author attributed the flag to St. Barthélemy, possibly through a typo, but Emerson adds "Several Internet sources attribute it to French St. Martin."

Al Kirsch & Ned Smith, 18 December 2005

Reported local, unofficial flag of Saint-Martin - Image by Luc Baronian, 1 May 2005

The World Statesmen website by Benjamin Cahoon shows a white flag with a coat of arms as an unofficial local flag of Saint-Martin.

Luc Baronian, 1 May 2005

None of the two flags shown above can be seen anywhere on the island. The local political leaders never seen nor heard about them.
The coat of arms is widely used by the municipality of Saint-Martin on letterheads and official documents, but not on a flag.

Jérôme Sterkers, 27 September 2006