Identifying the Barbados King Edward VII watermarked Multiple Crown CA Badge of the Colony issues is primarily a matter of determining the watermark, and then sorting a few color shades. The design was used from 1892 thru 1910 with two different watermarks. This article deals only with the issues watermarked Multiple Crown CA, which were printed from 1904 to 1910.

If you have trouble determining the watermarks on these stamps, try looking at them face down against black paper. The stamps watermarked Multiple Crown CA will appear all over the back of the stamp, unlike the Crown CA which is centered with the CA at the bottom of the stamp. So if you see CA on the sides, you are looking at the Multiple Crown CA.

Unlike modern stamps which are issued in the millions, definitive sets in the early 1900's were issued very conservatively. The 2/6 printing from this set was issued in a quantity of 6,240 stamps. The quantities printed are from "The Stamps of Barbados" by Edmund A. Bayley.

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 color shades for the 1/2d and 2-1/2d values were listed by Gibbons, but were deleted from the 2013 catalogue. As a result, I am showing them with the current catalogue number.

The images were saved in a larger size and at a higher resolution so you can more easily see the details used in sorting them. Please be patient if it takes a few minutes for this page to load.

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