UPDATE: December 2020
The article below was first published in October 2017, shortly after I had presented these pages to the British West Indies Study Circle. In the intervening three years, I have slowly been acquiring more of these postmarks and where possible, improving some of the originals.
Recently, a comment on this article has prompted me to re-examine this post and rather than change the original material, I have decided to update the early pages which have changed. I’ve not changed any of the narratives on the pages but I have managed to improve a number of the stamps, and in the case of the numeral 1 bootheel on SG73/74, I struck lucky about two years ago and found a fabulous copy.
As you will see though, there are still a number of gaps in the display so if anyone finds one of these and has a spare, please let me know!
Anyway, here are the updated pages and the original article is still below.
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Original Article – October 2017
At the recent British West Indies Study Circle (BWISC) weekend, members were invited to bring along some material to show.
There were some stunning displays from members and by the end of day two, it was really a case of ‘how do you follow that?’
In my case, this was how I did it; focusing on the cheaper end of collecting Barbados cancellations.
I started by looking for the parish bootheels on early imperforates and then perforated penny stamps and then on one of the cheapest stamps of the era, SG73 & SG74. From there it was parish bootheels on the Queen Victoria keyplate penny then parish cancels on the penny stamps after that.
Then, having visited the Philatelic Bureau in Bridgetown I presented a range of cancellers that they have in a drawer that are no longer in daily use in the Post Offices.
Following that, I presented examples on a cover of each of the parishes and Post Office cancels within the last couple of years.
Underneath are scans of the entire presentation so feel free to take a look.
Of course, this is still a work in progress as you can see from the number of gaps but that’s the beauty of this type of collecting. It takes a while but it’s inexpensive fun. So enjoy!
Outstanding, but those modern cancels, are IMO quite ugly!!
Give me the older ones any time.
Can’t say I disagree with you Lee but more importantly, the older ones had a better ink on them which makes them far more legible and more collectable IMHO
How were the numerals ‘6’ St. Joseph and ‘9’ St. Andrew distinguished from each other?
Sorry for the later reply – I only just noticed your question.
The answer is, with great difficulty! According to the reference books, there are no differences, though some people will tell you that one has three bars above and the other four bars. This doesn’t actually work in practice as the numerals were interchangeable. On the later bootheel cancel it’s just a matter of orientation as they are virtually indistinguishable. The best hope is to find one on a cover and see who the sender was, then you know for sure.
Hi, EXCELLENT site, well done! Note that I am an inexperienced general Empire collector, NOT an expert, and def not on Barbados. I think you say that you have not seen a Number 1 St Michael bootheel. I have two, one on a blue and one on a red. Let me know if you would like photos. Best wishes and Merry Christmas!
I’m always interested in any images; perhaps you could send them to admin [at] barbadosstamps.co.uk so I can see them? Thanks for the kind comments about the site, it’s a labour of love!