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JAMAICA
Land ofWood and Water

All early Jamaican postal instruments were manufactured. on request, in England, a process often taking
several months to complete. With the rapid growth of the Jamaican postal system in the final decades
of the 1 cJll century, these lengthy delays could no longer be accepted and another means of supporting
the timely opening of new post offices was called for. The answer was the temporary date-stamp, an
instrument that could be deployed very quickly at a new office while a permanent device was sought.

This was not a wholly new concept. Between 1855-62, two utility steel instruments, with removable
type, were employed as emergency replacements at post offices which had lost or damaged their
permanent date-stamps. Sets of similar instruments were later issued to four new offices between 1888-
93, and the example below, from Walker's Wood, clearly shows that it was made up from loose type.