1912 King George V Definitive Issues
Updated - July, 2017

Identifying the 1912 King George V issues is primarily a matter of determining a few color changes. The design was only used for this one set, and there are no watermark changes; so if you purchase this set, you will have most of the stamps from the set.

Unlike modern stamps which are issued in the millions, sets like this one were issued very conservatively. This set was issued from 1912 until 1915. The 2/ and 3/ issues of this set were issued in a quantity of 11,790 and 11,850 stamps during two printings respectively. Some of these stamps were overprinted for Revenue use, so the net unoverprinted printings were actually 10,590 for the 2/ value, and 7,320 for the 3/ value.

The quantities printed are from "The Stamps of Barbados" by Edmund A. Bayley. Mr. Bayley indicates that there were multiple printings of most of the issues from this set. Some of the printings resulted in color differences which are listed in some of the catalogues.

The catalog numbers are from the 1980 Commonwealth Five Reigns Catalogue (CW), 2013 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue (SG) and the 2011 Scott catalog (ST). The description is from the Commonwealth Catalogue. Please contact Bridger & Kay to obtain a copy of this publication.

The colors shown are from the Commonwealth Catalogue. Gibbons only lists color changes for the 1/4d and 1d issues. The 3d, 4d, and 1/ shades shown below are not listed by Gibbons. The Stanley Gibbons Catalogue lists the first printing of the 1/4d issues as Brown and the second printing as Pale Brown. So if you are using their descriptions, you will want to change the order of these two stamps from the illustrations below.

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This article was written to help you identify your stamps.
Please feel free to ask a question, or include a correction.