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Barbados

FIRST STAMPS ISSUED 1 August 1851.

CURRENCY
1852, sterling.
1950, 100 cents = 1 West Indian dollar.

The most easterly island of the Caribbean group which was discovered by the Portuguese in about 1600. It was uninhabited when occupied by the British in 1605. The colony was founded in 1627. As many Royalists settled here after the English Civil War, it was seized by Cromwell in 1652.

Regular mail service to England began with a mail packet agency early in the 18th century. First postal markings appeared on mail in the 1760s. The spelling of the name of the colony was Barbados until the 1850s.

Barbados was the chief transfer station for mail to and from the West Indies from 1885 to 1911.

Barbados joined the UPU in 1881, gained self-governing status in 1962 and became independent within the Commonwealth on 30 November 1966. First stamps after independence were issued on 2 December 1966.