For over a decade I have been maintaining a comprehensive list of the known first day covers of Barbados, and trying to collect as many of them as I can. Every different cover producer, parish cancel and combination has been noted on my spreadsheet and in every case, I’ve scanned a copy for the Gallery section of this website.
In the early days, I went through the Stanley Gibbons catalogue and copied down every date of issue, the SG catalogue numbers and a description. Over the years I’ve extended this when new issues have been added so now it covers from the 1920’s through to today.This list is stored in the cloud and enables me to check, wherever I am, whether I already have a first day cover.
There are, however, some notable gaps, and trying to fill them has been a challenge. For example, Barbados issued a Horse Racing set in 1969; the stamps are very common and can be picked up for pennies, as can the first day cover (see below). But try and find a first day cover of the souvenir sheet that accompanied the set and you may struggle. I certainly have, and to date I’ve still never seen one.
I’ve got a souvenir sheet with the first day cancel on, but not on any cover.
Altogether, there are just nine gaps in my collection, of which the majority are souvenir sheet first day covers.
On top of this, however, there are several gaps which are labelled “May not exist as a FDC” where I have determined, after searching for so long, that it is possible that no FDC was ever created for that issue. As an example, it’s pretty easy to find FDC’s of the Marine Life definitive issues from 1985, but when they were reprinted in 1986 there doesn’t seem to be any first day cover to accompany that printing. That makes sense in a way as from an issuing point of view it’s not a ‘new’ issue as such, it’s just a reprint of an existing issue.
Similarly, with the birds definitives of 1979, these are easily found on FDC but I didn’t think that anyone had bothered creating a FDC for the surcharged issues in 1981. Here’s my spreadsheet to show the gap:
I had even left a gap in my album, just in case one turned up.
All that changed, however, when I was searching online two weeks ago. To my surprise, I spotted a Barbados FDC for sale on Delcampe that at first glance, I could tell was something different. For a start, it was a plain cover which shouldn’t be notable except for the fact that during the 1980’s every FDC produced by Barbados had an officially produced illustrated cover to accompany the issue of stamps. This cover, however, was plain bar an address in black type and typed in red above it, the words “FIRST DAY OF ISSUE 1ST SEPTEMBER 1981 – ADDITIONAL DEFINITIVES”. Those words alone made me realise that this was one of the ‘missing covers that I had been looking for.
In truth, I’d pretty much given up hope of ever finding it, so to see this offered for sale was a complete shock. As was the price, which was significantly over what I’d normally pay for such an item. But this was one of those occasions when the price is of little importance; it’s the realisation that the thing you’ve been hunting for over a decade is right in front of your eyes. I could hardly wait until the cover was posted to me from the Czech Republic. Quite how a cover from Barbados, addressed to England, ended up in the Czech Republic is probably another story entirely!
The cover has four stamps on it; a 55c stamp that was newly issued on 1st September and three surcharged stamps. The surcharges were ordered when Barbados changed the postage rates on 1st September 1981 meaning the 45c stamp was surcharged 40c, the 28c stamp became 15c and the 70c stamp became 60c. The 40c stamp was needed for the second weight step inland postage, the 15c for inland printed papers rate up to 250g and the newspaper rate for Jamaica and Eastern Caribbean, and the 60c became the standard letter rate for letters to the U.K.
This is the cover in question; admittedly not in the very best condition but as it appears to be the only one I’ll take it as it stands.
So, the search for this elusive cover is over but the hunt continues for the now eight missing gaps in my collection. If any of you have any Barbados souvenir sheet FDC’s and you can’t see them in the gallery section of this website, please let me know!