I have received the following from the Barbados Philatelic Bureau which confirms that these stamps are now due at the end of the year.
This issue will feature a set of twenty (20) stamps as well as a Souvenir Sheet with seven (7) images. First Day Covers will also be a part of this unique issue honouring the centenarians of Barbados. These individuals have made an outstanding contribution to the development of Barbados, with their longevity having brought recognition to the country as having the second highest percentage of centenarians in the world. The Barbados Postal Service is honoured to release this issue in tribute to our Centenarians, in the year we celebrate our 50th Anniversary of Independence. Each stamp will carry a 65 cents value. The issue will be released on December 8th.
Recently someone commented to me that this would be an expensive stamp issue with 27 different stamps. Whilst this may seem a large number, personally I have no problem with this.
Firstly, this is a worthy issue celebrating the life and times of these centenarians and secondly, the stamps are priced at the modest inland rate of $0.65. The whole set therefore is no more than $15.60 which is just over £6.
To put this in context, the Christmas issue from Royal Mail here in the UK is £9.05 for the full set of stamps, including just two of the stamps at the lower second class rate.
Royal Mail would therefore do well to consider the modest issuing policy of Barbados but for goodness sake, don’t do a centenarians issue. At last count there were over 4,000 in the UK!
[…] a total of 27 new stamps, the Centenarians issue was released on 8th December 2016 and is the single largest stamp new issue ever released on […]