How common is this common stamp on cover?

When you start collecting stamps of any country, the chances are that you will quickly become familiar with stamps that are ‘common’ and found in pretty much every collection. In Barbados, the Olive Blossom stamp is one of those stamps.

Issued in 1906, the stamp was designed by Lady Carter, the wife of the Governor of the Island, Sir Gilbert Carter, and commemorated 300 years since the island was believed to have been annexed, in 1605. The stamp features a continuous scroll across the top showing “1605, Barbados, 1905” above an image of a ship ascribed to be The Olive Blossom. Of course, at that point, this was believed to be the date when the island was claimed in the name of King James I, but the history books now show that the first English ship to land on the island was on May 14th, 1625, some twenty years after the date on the stamp and it was simply called ‘Olive’. But never let the facts get in the way of a good stamp design!

The stamp was issued on 15th August 1906 and as it was a One Penny stamp, it was perfect for a range of uses, predominantly postcards from the island to the UK and local mail. As there was already a set of commemorative stamps, issued earlier that year, celebrating the Nelson Centenary and a set of definitive stamps, issued in 1905 that were in continuous use until 1912, there were not all that many uses for this one off issue. But it was used, and in great quantities, as we said, mainly for postcards and local mail and the entire requisition of 500,000 stamps was eventually used up. No wonder it is a ‘common ‘stamp.

But for it to become a ‘common’ stamp, especially in used condition, it means that most of the stamps were soaked off covers and cards to add to stamp collections the world over. And as a collector, why wouldn’t you? There are so many of them it would just make sense to soak them off. So, in the 2011 SG catalogue this stamp was priced at just 25p used which was a fair price for such a common item and a decade on its price had only risen to £1.

What it also meant though, was that by default, the number of covers and postcards still intact with the stamp affixed, become few and far between.

In over a decade of collecting these items, I have only seen around twenty covers containing one or more of the Olive Blossom stamps. I’m certain that there are more, but many reside in collections and are rarely seen. Moreover, finding a cover with more than one stamp on it, i.e., paying a higher rate such as 4d, is even harder still.

When this item turned up this week though, I was delighted to welcome it into the collection and add it to the six other postcards and three covers I have with the single stamp affixed.

At some point I will add a separate section to the website with these items to illustrate every one of them, in the meantime, however, perhaps you should think about stamps that are considered common today and look to find covers and postcards with them on. After all, today’s common