Early in 1925 the organisers of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, which was to open in Dunedin in November of that year, approached the Postmaster-General with a request that a set of commemorative stamps be produced for the event. Mr H Linley Richardson was asked to prepare a suitable stamp design which was then printed at the Government Printing Office, New Zealand.The Dunedin Exhibition stamps are unusual in that they were relief printed from line etched zinc plates on paper that had been toned using lithographic plates. Like the Christchurch Exhibition, the stamps were only sold at the exhibition and the numbers sold were quite small.
The stamps show a view of the 400 meter Grand Court with the dome of the Festival Hall in the background. The top and side borders feature a traditional Maori Taniko weaving pattern.
½d - Dunedin Exhibition Green.
1d - Dunedin Exhibition Red.
1d - Dunedin Exhibition Mauve.
Used POSTAGF Flaw. Mint POSTAGF Flaw.
If is look at the right hand side on the two stamps above you will see the "4d" value in the lower corner. Just above the value is the word "POSTAGE" but in this case a flaw in the letter "E" has formed the word "POSTAGF." The is an enlarged view of this flaw below.
POSTAGF Flaw Enlarged.
Dunedin Exhibition 1925 set on a First Day Cover, Exhibition cancels 17/11/1925.
This cover comes from a time before printed first day covers were available so they were either arranged especially by collectors or were a lucky find later when a collector saw the date on the post office cancel.
A block of four stamps with clear 'Dunedin Exhibition' cancel strikes. Like the earlier Exhibition Issues, these stamps were only sold at the exhibition. I believe this might have proved a disadvantage that limited sales. Certainly it has caused the exhibition stamps to increase in value at a greater rate than other stamps for this time.
A post card show a similar view of the Grand Court with the dome of the Festival Hall building that appears on the stamps.
Some of the images in this post were used with permission from the illustrated catalogue of StampsNZ
You can visit their web site and On-line Catalogue at, http://stampsnz.com/
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