It’s been a while since we last had a stamp issue from the Barbados Philatelic Bureau; in fact it was the Gullies definitives which were issued over a year ago in April 2024. Prior to that the last commemorative stamp issue was the 50th Anniversary of the Central Bank of Barbados in May 2023, so its now over two years since a commemorative issue.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining; far from it. The modest issuing policy of Barbados is an attraction for a great many collectors who, unlike the G.B. output, aren’t forced into spending increasingly large amounts of money, every six weeks or so, for stamps that will probably never see genuine postal use.
Every stamp issue from Barbados is used as intended, and if you visit the post offices you can often find some values in the counter books back as far as 2017. They stay there until they are completely used up, so nothing goes to waste and everything gets pushed into service.
Which brings us to the new issues that are being suggested. Yes, there is more than one new issue and the two that I have been told are in the pipeline are the 70th Anniversary of the Barbados Fire Service and the Dove of Peace.
Barbados Fire Service were previously recognised in September 2005 with a set of five stamps with a set recognising their 50th Anniversary, so an update like this is both welcome and timely. It’s always good to see recognition of services and traditions that are essentially Bajan. There is no suggestion of a design yet and no advance proofs to see, so we will have to wait to see whether it’s a reprise of the previous designs or a completely new concept.
The second set, Dove of Peace, appears to be tying in with a larger issuing programme, as a quick internet search reveals that Greenland post posted this on their website;
“We are issuing our first embroidered stamp on 21st September. As part of the Dove of Peace project, several European postal services are each issuing an embroidered stamp with the same dove of peace design.”
Whether the Barbados issue will be in September as well is not clear, as no dates have been give for either issue, but it seems likely that it would tie in with other International issues. I’m also assuming that the Barbados issue will be a standard print rather than some special embroidered, or gold foil, or other strange creation, but again that’s just speculation. It could be that this one is a brand new type of stamp and a first for Barbados. That’s part of the fun, we get to wait to find out!
As soon as I hear anything new I’ll keep you updated.