Identifying the Barbados King George V 1925 issues is primarily a matter of determining the perforation of some of the values, and color differences and some paper color shades for other ones. All of the stamps were issued on paper that was watermarked with the Multiple Script CA that was in use at that time, so you do not have to find the watermark to isolate this set of stamps.

Unlike previous Barbados stamps, this set was available for both postage and revenue. Stamps to 3/ were printed with this dual purpose. Higher values of 5/ to £100 were printed for Revenue use only. These revenue stamps were Great Britain issues overprinted Barbados, so they do not have the same design as the 1925 set.

Most of the stamps were perforated 14 on all sides, but some of the 1/2d, 1d, 1-1/2d, 2-1/2d, and 1/ issues were perforated 13-1/2 by 12-1/2 in 1931 and 1932. This happened because a new perforator was put into use at this time. Printings made after 1932 were perforated 14, the same as earlier printings.

You will need to notice the design differences between this issue and the later King George VI set. The easiest way is to notice that Postage & Revenue is engraved on the top between the scrolls. This was replaced with a line on the later KGVI set.

Unlike modern stamps which are issued in the millions, sets like this one were issued very conservatively. This set was issued from 1925 until 1935. The 2/6 issues of this set were issued in a net quantity of 44,000 stamps. This becomes 26,072 total stamps when you take into account the 17,928 stamps that were destroyed in 1938. The 3/ issues were printed twice with a total of 51,840 stamps produced.

The quantities printed and other details mentioned above are from "The Stamps of Barbados" by Edmund A. Bayley. Mr. Bayley notes that other values were printed from one to as many as fourteen times. So there are some interesting color and perforation variations to look for.

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.

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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.