Identifying the Barbados Nelson Centenary issues is primarily a matter of determining the watermarks on three stamps, and there is a rare color shade of the 2-1/2d MCA value that was printed in an Indigo color rather than the typical Bright Blue.

If you have trouble determining the watermark on these stamps, try looking at them face down against black paper.

Excluding the rare Indigo shade, this set is fairly common. A total of 12,180 complete sets were printed. The quantity printed is from "The Stamps of Barbados" by Edmund A. Bayley.

The stamps were initially printed on paper watermarked Crown CC, and a later printing of 3 values was printed on paper watermarked Multiple Crown CA. This printing is where the Indigo shade occurred. Mr. Bayley indicates that about 2,000 of the Indigo shade stamps out of the total of 27,180 2-1/2d MCA isssues were printed. I do not have a copy of the Indigo shade, but have accumulated a few scans from various sources. The darkest one is shown above, but there is some variation in the color being sold as the Indigo shade, so if you have a copy it might not be as deep.

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.