Stamp Configurations Saved by Collectors

        "Stamp configurations saved by collectors", what does that mean? Basely this post is going to take all the items and various packs on sale by NZ Post, for the 2014 New Zealand Native Seaweed Issue, and see how they would be added to a collection. A lot of the comments in this post is my personal opinion and I realise that many stamp collectors will disagree with my likes and dislikes.

          The 2014 NZ Seaweed Issue consisted of five values each featuring a seaweed found in New Zealand waters. They were, of course, sold as single stamps and so many collectors will purchase individual stamps for storage in a stock book or for mounting in an album or other display.

 

 The five single Stamps.

The Collector Presentation Pack.

New Zealand Native Seaweeds Presentation Pack.

          The presentation pack features the five gummed stamps, the first day cover and the miniature sheet. As can be seen above, this is an attractive way of collecting stamps as they remain in their own packs. There is a lot of information about the stamps and their subjects, plus of course you have the re-sale value of the pack.
          To me this seems a bulky way of collecting stamps. By that I mean you end up with a pile of collector packs which must somehow be safely stored. But considering I write about stamps and their subjects in this blog, having a large collection of presentation packs would be an endless source of information. Unfortunately I don't own any collector packs, so I must rely on other sources for my information.

The Covers and Miniature Sheet.

         It seems these days every issue has its First Day Cover, Miniature Sheet and Miniature Sheet First Day Cover. These are popular with collectors with special albums being available to store them safely in a collection.

          Above we have the normal First Day Cover which like its name says must be cancelled on the first day of issue. I can understand collectors going to the effort of purchasing the stamps and special cover and posting it on the First Day of Issue to get their special collectors item.

          For earlier issues, in many cases the First Day Cover was just an ordinary cover posted on the first day of issue to get the post mark. When we did this, the post mistress at the local post office would carefully apply the cancellation to give a clear and sharp post mark, the following day the cover would arrive in our mail box.

         The cover above was prepared well before the date of issue and sold with its cancellation strikes already in place. Many of these covers never go through the mail which to me sort of defeats the purpose of a First Day Cover. Particularly when the cover might not even have been purchased on the First Day. These days most FDC are cancelled using a special cancel designed for the issue concerned, as can be seen above.



           Now we come to the miniature sheet. This is a special sheet which usually contains all the stamps issued in an especially designed sheet, produced and sold for the collector market. It is very rare to see a miniature sheet actually used for postage as the sheet will in usually cover most of the front of the envelope, as it does on the First Day Cover below. Personally I have never had much interest in putting miniature sheets on to covers like that. Again it seems pointless, like you are pretending to have posted an item when it is obvious to everyone that you haven't.

 The Full Sheet.

         Most postage stamps are prepared and printed in sheets as is shown above. The stamps are then separated as required using the perforations. I want to point out some key details on this sheet which are of importance to collectors.

        The marginal strip of paper around the outside edge is known as the selvedge. This carries some useful information about the stamps, such as the printer, value etc. It also often has marks used by the printer to check on colours and ailment of the print. Modern stamp sheets also carry one or more barcodes for use by NZ Post as the sheets are handled by staff.

         Down in the bottom left-hand corner is the name of the printer, Southern Colour Print Ltd. This is where the plate block comes from. Up in the top right-hand corner is the value of the whole sheet, not the stamp value which of course is displayed on each stamp. The value block is taken from here. Down in the bottom right is the name of the organisation issuing the stamps, in this case New Zealand Post. This is where the logo block comes from. I have marked out the position of these three blocks in the sheet above. Of course the barcode blocks are fairly obvious too.

          It is possible to purchase a whole sheet which is why the sheet value is included. People who require a large number of stamps will often do this, as will collectors who purchase for investment, as its a convenient way to keep volumes of stamps together. NZ Post offer a collectors pack of all the values for an issue, in this case five full sheets as can be seen above.

Plate Blocks. 

           A plate block is a corner block of stamps showing the printer and designer details in the selvedge. In this case it includes six stamps but this number could vary due the design of the stamps or full sheet and also by how many stamps the purchaser decides to buy. In this case the four colours used in the printing process are also seen on the left side of each block as well. You can see the position of this block on the full sheet above.

         Personally, I like to see a Plate Block that is considerably longer than it is high. I believe the Plate Blocks below could do with having another pair added to the right. Looking at the full sheet above it can be seen that this larger block would include the lower bar code, which would be a much better place for it than in its own little block as can be seen below as Barcode Black A. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree.

   When my brother was collecting stamps for investment, he had an arrangement with a local Post Office to keep him a number of plate blocks which would be taken off full sheets they had in stock. Now of course it would be much easier to just place a regular order with NZ Post and have each issue sent to you as a set meeting your specific requirements. 

Value Blocks.

         Here we see a similar block, this time from the top right corner where the value of the sheet is shown in the selvedge. This is not as popular as the plate block but is often collected so is also sold in a set as seen below. You can see the position of this block on the full sheet above.
        I consider the Value Block to be a good second choice to a Plate Block on a given issue but there are some occasions when this block would be a much better choice. For example if a stamp was overprinted with a value change then the value in the selvedge would also reflect this change. The full sheet would also have changed so you would probably find the old sheet value overprinted or covered in some way and a new sheet value added. This would be of interest to people viewing your collection.

Other Blocks - Logo Blocks & Barcode Blocks.

          The logo and name of NZ Post can also be purchased in a block as well, called a Logo Block. Personally I can not see why anyone would chose this over either of the blocks above.

There are also blocks called Barcode Blocks. I notice NZ Post offered two of these for sale on their web site for this issue. Again I wonder why anyone would purchase these but there must be a market, or hoped for market, or they would never have been offered in the packs seen below.

Logo Blocks.
You can see the position of this block on the full sheet above.

Barcode Block A. (The bottom barcode.)

Barcode Block B. (The side barcode.)

 This has been an interesting little side issue to the real purpose of this blog which is to display postage stamps of New Zealand so you, my readers can learn more about the beautiful stamps issued by my country, New Zealand.