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2 stamps a day during last 100 km

AdélaH

New Member
Time of past OR future Camino
June 2017
Is it true that I need to get 2 stamps a day during the last 100 km? Or does this apply only on pilgrims, who only walk the last 100 km?
Thank you very much for the answer :)
Adéla
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Yes - the Pilgrim Office asks for two stamps each day for at least the last 100km. Some people who have walked further have ignored this in the past and have received Compostelas but the instruction is now quite clear. There is no difficulty in finding two sellos each day as almost every bar and restaurant as well as many churches will have one available.
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
I got my compostela some 2 weeks ago after completing the Via del Plata /Sanabres route and did not have 2 stamps on any one day .
I think that the people who issue the Compostela's can tell by the state ( suntanned/weary/bedraggled/calm/thankful ) of the pilgrim stood infront of them whether they have really tried to cheat or not .

Regards...John
 
Is it true that I need to get 2 stamps a day during the last 100 km? Or does this apply only on pilgrims, who only walk the last 100 km?
Thank you very much for the answer :)
Adéla

The lengthily, and official, answer can be found here: https://oficinadelperegrino.com/en/pilgrimage/the-compostela/
as for running out of space for stamps, just get a new one ;-) (a lot of albergues on the last 100km have them, especially in Sarria). Buen Camino, SY
 
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I got my compostela some 2 weeks ago after completing the Via del Plata /Sanabres route and did not have 2 stamps on any one day .
I think that the people who issue the Compostela's can tell by the state ( suntanned/weary/bedraggled/calm/thankful ) of the pilgrim stood infront of them whether they have really tried to cheat or not .

Regards...John

Thank you very much :)
 
I know I can get a new one, but I just wanted to have one credential with all the stamps, but I really appreciate your answers :)

If you only get one stamp a day along the way, then get two once you reach Sarria, you may be ok. Just depends on your credential and how many spaces it has. Have you counted?
 
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If you only get one stamp a day along the way, then get two once you reach Sarria, you may be ok. Just depends on your credential and how many spaces it has. Have you counted?

I'm currently in Triacastela (one day before Sarria) with 6 walking days left and 10 spaces in my credential...
 
I'm currently in Triacastela (one day before Sarria) with 6 walking days left and 10 spaces in my credential...

There is a tourist center just as you enter Sarria that provided my friend with an additional page at no cost. He had the option of purchasing another credential, but like you, he wanted to have only one. The free option suited him perfectly.
 
There is a tourist center just as you enter Sarria that provided my friend with an additional page at no cost. He had the option of purchasing another credential, but like you, he wanted to have only one. The free option suited him perfectly.

We had a kindly priest insist on adding a page to our credentials in a church in Melide (?). It was such an expert job with the tape and the scissors, you could tell he had done this a few times before.
 
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I know I can get a new one, but I just wanted to have one credential with all the stamps, but I really appreciate your answers :)

So get a new credencial, cut off the 'stamp fields' you need and glue/fix them to your original one ;-) Buen Camino, SY
 
I know I can get a new one, but I just wanted to have one credential with all the stamps, but I really appreciate your answers :)
Hi Adele, in 2015 I did meet a Pilgrim in Burgos.
He began his journey in Cologne , he was returning from Muxia on his way to Jerusalem. He just stapled credential's together:cool: , by the way he was traveling with his dog and tent.

Wish you well,Peter.
 
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I have two filled credencials, and an extra sheet which I'd photocopied from a blank credencial because I knew I'd need more space for stamps (I have CSJ credencials which are slightly larger than the Spanish credencials). All were perused and stamped at the Pilgrim's Office.
For me, my credencials are my journal/diary.
Just looking at where I was on any particular day brings back a memory of where I was, where I slept, what I ate or drank there, who with (even if I can no longer recall the name!), and various other things about the day.
So for you, getting an extra page or a new credential and cutting it down seems like the ideal solution.
 
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I too have two filled credentials - I just love the stamps. I averaged just over two a day over the whole Camino Frances and Camino Finisterre (35 days, 76 stamps). And has been said, they are a reminder of where I was, where and what I ate, where I slept. Some of the stamps have stories. At the pilgrims office in Santiago, I told the person that I loved the stamps, got a big smile, and they officially stamped both credentials.
Buen Camino!
--jim--
 
I too have two filled credentials - I just love the stamps. I averaged just over two a day over the whole Camino Frances and Camino Finisterre (35 days, 76 stamps). And has been said, they are a reminder of where I was, where and what I ate, where I slept. Some of the stamps have stories. At the pilgrims office in Santiago, I told the person that I loved the stamps, got a big smile, and they officially stamped both credentials.
Buen Camino!
--jim--

Me too, they stamped both my credentials.
 
I think that the people who issue the Compostela's can tell by the state ( suntanned/weary/bedraggled/calm/thankful ) of the pilgrim stood infront of them whether they have really tried to cheat or not .

I think I must have looked like a cheat or an imposter to the woman who gave me my compostela then, because she made a point of counting my stamps and asking me questions about them. She asked me more than once whether or not I had walked the last 100 km in their entirety. I had started in Burgos, so it wasn't as though I did just the last 100 km either. I guess I didn't look thankful or bedraggled enough? LOL.
 
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There is a tourist center just as you enter Sarria that provided my friend with an additional page at no cost. He had the option of purchasing another credential, but like you, he wanted to have only one. The free option suited him perfectly.
Yep, exactly the same experience last month. The Tourist Information Centre that you walk past at the entrance to Sarria offers additional sheets of paper complete with ruled spaces for sellos and tape to attach the additional pages to your credential. Otherwise you can buy a new credential at the monastry at the other end of town.
 
Yes - the Pilgrim Office asks for two stamps each day for at least the last 100km. Some people who have walked further have ignored this in the past and have received Compostelas but the instruction is now quite clear. There is no difficulty in finding two sellos each day as almost every bar and restaurant as well as many churches will have one available.
That's provided you can actually find a church that is open. Sadly many were not open for much of the day (week days) and had restricted hours on Sundays.
 
So get another credential. You can get them in many albergues along the way.
I was aware of this requirement so I actually cut up my second credential and glued the extra pages/spaces on to the first. Maybe it should be suggested to the Pilgrim Office to start printing credentials with at least 56/60 spaces for stamps. My original had 48 spaces and I would have not had sufficient without the extra pages. Even with the extra spaces I have at least 52 stamps and I was not as diligent in my stamp collecting as some pilgrims.
I do recall seeing credentials that had around 72 spaces - but these seemed a bit to large.
 
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Walked from Lisbon to santiago last year. Had a busy social evening three days out from santiago and forgot to stamp my credential. This resulted in lots of questions and me having to get a friend in the line who could verify my route. Not the friendliest end but I suppose it was my oversight. They can check, and do. Keep getting stamps especially those last 100km.
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
I actually had a few stamps over the map of the Caminho Portugues (which I was doing)
 
Many thanks to all of you for your helpful answers!!! As there is only one space missing in my credential, I will just get the last stamp in Santiago in different part of the credential :)
BUEN CAMINO!
 
I know I can get a new one, but I just wanted to have one credential with all the stamps, but I really appreciate your answers :)
We made a new friend when we walked who walked from Germany, who had walked the Camino 6 times from his home in Germany and had several credentials connected together. He and I sat one evening drink cerveza and he went through each of his credentials was told stories from each walk, he is 69 years old. If any else knows Reinhardt you know he full of stories . You would know him at least by his 60 lbs. pack.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
On my first Camino, in 2013, I walked with a fellow who was collecting sellos everywhere he could find them, along the entire length of the Frances. His wife was a teacher. Her fifth grade class was following his Camino on a map and through his nightly blog posts. He literally would arrive in a village or hamlet and stop everywhere a sello might be found to collect it in his expanded credential.

When we finally met at Santiago, he showed me his APOC-issued credential. As they come in the post, the APOC credentials contain relatively few spaces for sellos, actually counted to be 56. So, this guy had several blank sheets of paper glued into the APOC credential. Each was fan-folded to collapse into the APOC credential as a cover.

The overall effect, when fully extended, was like an origami paper sculpture. The finished version of his credential had several hundred stamps. The sellos completely filled the base credential and (IIRC) four A4 sheets, trimmed in width (the short dimension) to fit the credential / cover when folded. it looked like a paper creature with four legs.

Also, and pertinent, when I was working at the Pilgrim Office in previous years, we would occasionally encounter a pilgrim with a personal journal sort of bound book documenting their daly thoughts and observations on their Camino. They used this as their credential, placing all their sellos in the book. Moleskine books were popular for this.

However, the Pilgrim Office has recently changed their outlook on this. The official position is that they will only accept credentials from "approved" sources.

Approved includes all the national pilgrim / Camino associations around the world. Examples include, but are NOT limited to:
Confraternity of Saint James,
American Pilgrims on Camino,
Canadian Company of Pilgrims,
Nederlands Genootschap van Sint Jacob,
Vlaams Compostela Genootschap, and
similar German organizations...you know who you are...I cannot remember the name of the main group at this moment.

There are also national Camino organizations in most every European country. The Irish, Australians and New Zealanders also have national groups. I apologize for not having them all on the tip of my fingers at the moment. Feel free to post them in this dialog.

Finally, the Cathedral Pilgrim Office at Santiago makes bulk quantities of their official credential available to Spanish and Portuguese pilgrim groups. They also provide credentials to Ivar for sale through this forum shop.

BTW & FYI, after my escapade last summer convincing the hierarchy that the Cathedral-issued credential paper needed to to be changed to prevent ink-smearing, the new batch of credentials is MUCH improved and sellos no longer smear. Bar napkins are no longer necessary as blotters...joepie! I obtained one at the office when I arrived from Lisbon in mid-May, I tested it on the spot and it works fine.

However, there are still some glossy older credentials in the distribution pipeline, until they are consumed. But, you should know that Ivar has the new style with the better paper, as does the Pilgrim Office.

I hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
I know I can get a new one, but I just wanted to have one credential with all the stamps, but I really appreciate your answers :)
I was in a similar situation earlier this month. I got one stamp a day for the last 100 km in my credential but set aside a page in my journal and got two stamps a day on that separate page. I presented both documents and had no trouble getting my compostela.
 
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I was in a similar situation earlier this month. I got one stamp a day for the last 100 km in my credential but set aside a page in my journal and got two stamps a day on that separate page. I presented both documents and had no trouble getting my compostela.
Interestingly when I presented the credential by itself with only one stamp a day I got a frown and a negative shake of the head from the person in the pilgrim office which implied to me that: "oh no, this won't do." But when I produced the supplementary sheet in my journal a second or two later it was all smiles and: "oh, that's okay then, no problem."
My problem arose because, although I thought I had enough spaces in my credential, two stamps were oversized and took up two spots each and then someone offered to do a watercolour sketch in my credential which I couldn't turn down and that took up two more. Four lost spaces. There's a lesson in there somewhere!
 
Many thanks to all of you for your helpful answers!!! As there is only one space missing in my credential, I will just get the last stamp in Santiago in different part of the credential :)
BUEN CAMINO!
I saved the last space for a stamp from the Reis Catolicos but the Pilgrim Office used it instead. Next time TWO spaces!
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
When I wanted to use 3 Credencials I have space for 168 sello's you must be a collector.;)
Wish you well,Peter.
Hi Peter,
Never thought to count but it's 123 sellos including quite a few that take two spaces.
It was supposed to be the LAST EVER camino so I made sure I got my money's worth!
 

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