1898 New Zealand's First Variety. (Error)

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       Is this an error or a variety?
       New Zealand's best-known stamp error - the name of the lake was misspelt with an ‘i’ (Wakitipu)  instead of an ‘a’ (Wakatipu.) It caused considerable interest when issued and further printings were made to satisfy the purely philatelic and speculative demand. The consequence was that in its mint form, the error is more common than the correct spelling. Most of those who bought the stamp retained them unused and genuinely used copies are not common. You can see a used copy on the cover further down but it is in very poor condition.

   
1898 2½d - Lake Wakitipu/Wakatipu error.
The error is on the left and the correct spelling on the right. 

           
1898 2½d - Lake Wakitipu - wrong spelling.                     1898 2½d - Lake Wakatipu - correct spelling.

 
I am not sure that this is real in the sense that these two stamps were placed on this cover together by accident. The postmark dated 18 Feb, 1900 is a dead give away. The condition of the stamps. one being clean and the other one dirty also points to this being put together for a collector in the USA. Finally, take a close look at that cancel over the stamps. That cancel was a special one, known today as the Wellington Flag Cancel that was only used in Wellington around 1900.
See our post 1900  The Wellington Flag.

Comments

  1. Anonymous8 September 2014 at 06:13

    Hi Mary. I really like that cover. That was sure a good find.
    Nigel

    ReplyDelete
  2. kiwianne1212 September 2014 at 22:52

    A spelling mistake on a stamp! How on earth did they do that?
    Also interesting how they printed the mistake again for collectors. Even back then the Post Office had collectors in mind. LOL
    Awesome Anne.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown12 September 2014 at 23:48

    Thanks Nigel.

    Awesome Anne again girl! You do get around. Yes it seems the mistake was made in England where they had no idea about Maori place names. Yes the extra print led to some interesting changes in the levels of new and used for both stamps.
    Mary

    ReplyDelete

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