Maximum cards are generally postcard size or slightly larger, and feature a stamp from an issue, tied to the postcard with a relevant cancel. The relationship between the stamp, postcard and cancel should be close but they don’t have to be identical. There are recognised classes for exhibiting these at philatelic events and there are many serious collectors of such items, sometimes based on a theme or on a country.
Very few maximum cards have been issued bearing Barbados stamps, and only one of them by the Barbados Postal Authorities.
The first maximum card ever issued for Barbados was in 1966, and it featured Sir Garfield Sobers. The image was an illustration of him batting and the stamp used was the 35c value taken from the Independence set of 1966. It can only be found bearing his autograph as he personally signed every one of them.
Following that there were no more issues from the Philatelic Bureau, however the next time we see maximum cards for the islands’ stamps was in 1991 with the WWF Endangered Species set featuring the Yellow Warbler. After that we have to wait until 1999 for the next Endangered Species set, the Piping Plover before finally seeing a set in 2006 for the final of the Endangered Species issues (so far)the Queen Triggerfish.
The gallery below show examples of all of these maximum cards and will be updated in the future if any more are issued.
