The King George VI Bahamas stamps were printed from 1938 until about 1952. During this time period, there were two primary sets and one that was a Commemorative overprint using the 1938 set. Of these, the initial 1938 set has many items of interest, and as a result, the overprint set has also generated a lot of collector specialization both due to the number of issues that were overprinted as well as the numerous flaws in the overprints themselves. The 1948 set on the other hand should be obtained, but I have not found anything that merits study in this set.

The pages for the 1938 set were created using information presented by W. J. W. Potter & Lt. Col. R. C. M. Shelton in their "The Printings of King George VI Colonial Stamps" which was published by Stamp Collecting Ltd. in December, 1952. The publication listed tables for each of the countries' issues that were included. The listings of "PSxx" were created to tie into the Potter & Shelton listings. They are unique to my collection, so won't tie into anything you might find familiar. Please consult your catalog to determine the appropriate listing for the stamps displayed.

There are also links below to David Studd's Crown Agents reports for the Bahamas showing the printings he documented. I don't have permission to share it, but David's web site has gone inactive. So hopefully he won't mind. Unfortunately the Crown Agents did not report any color information, so you will have to try to figure that out for yourself. My pages were created before I obtained a copy of the report, so it does not include this information.

The remaining pages from my collection are identified by the Commonwealth, Gibbons, and Scott numbers in that order. The page images were scanned in a larger size and at a higher resolution so you can more easily see the details used in viewing them. Feel free to select the page and let it download to your screen and save it to your hard drive for viewing. If you are using a PC, selecting the page will typically open it in Microsoft Photo Viewer (or whatever you are using as your default). From there you can enlarge the size for more close-up viewing. If you are using a phone - go find a PC or a Mac. The images are 1200 pixels wide and you will go mad trying to view them on your phone.

Please be patient if it takes a few minutes for each page to load.

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