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2023 starts by finding a missing Barbados First Day Cover

Barbados Cricketers FDC 1988 - 50c value only issued 11th July 1988

Back in 2019, I wrote an article on the infamous Barbados Cricketers’ error and subsequent First Day Cover, which happened in 1988. In short, the issue, was released on June 6th 1988 but almost immediately, an error was spotted. A descendant of one of the cricketers pictured on the stamps was shown a copy and he spotted that the wrong image had been included.

As a consequence, the First Day Cover for this issue was released to the public with just four stamps included, instead of all five values. The 50c value, having been withdrawn as soon as the mistake was identified, took a further month to reprint and so was issued separately on its own FDC.

During my research for the original article, it became evident that whilst I had managed to acquire a nice copy of the First Day Cover issued on 6th June, I had yet to find one with the single value. I even wrote at the time:

“The fifth stamp finally got its own FDC the following month on 11th July 1988. To date, I’ve yet to see a copy and no one I know collecting Barbados has a copy either.”

Barbados 1988 | West Indian cricket FDC
Barbados 1988 | West Indian cricket FDC

Ironically, talking to a friend of mine a couple of weeks later, he informed me that he’d just picked up both covers from eBay for a couple of pounds. And so began my search for a copy of this FDC. I’ve scoured auction websites, dealers’ boxes, and auction lists for the intervening three and a half years, to no avail. Not only could I not buy one, I couldn’t even find one. Fast forward to December 2022 however and suddenly one appeared on eBay, the first I’d ever seen. Given that it was missing from my collection and the FDC gallery on this website, I wanted to get it, and in the end, whilst I paid a little more than I hoped, I’m delighted to announce that it is finally here.

Barbados Cricketers FDC 1988 - 50c value only issued 11th July 1988

Persistence, it seems, pays off, but I’m still waiting for a response to the query at the end of my original article, which was:

Does anyone else have a story about how these stamps were acquired and who bought them?

Perhaps I won’t have to wait for another three and a half years before getting an answer to this one!?

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