In this post I will show you the complete Arms set. Both the original 1931 Issue and the 1940 Overprint Issue. When I first began to study Revenue stamps I thought that the 1940 Overprints were bold black figures overprinted on existing stamps but actually, in the lower values, most of them were new values being added to the 1931 set. You will notice that further down the page, some of the high values were existing stamps overprinted in 1940. Because of this overlap between issues I have decided arranged them on this page with both issues being combined as one set.
1/3 - Lemon. 1/3 - Orange/Yellow. 1/3 - Black Text. 1/3 - Blue Text.
1s 3d - Lemon Arms Type was issued in 1931. When it proved difficult to read it was re-issued a few months later in an Orange-Yellow colour. It was issued with black text in 1955. In July 1956 a mistake was made with blue lettering in place of the black.
2/6 Brown. 3/6 Green. 3/6 Green (sans-serif).
The 2s 6d brown was issued in 1931 while the 3s 6d did not appear until 1940. It was only issued in the overprinted version. Later some printings of the 3s 6d used sans-serif lettering.
4/- Red-Brown. 5/- Green. 5/6 - Lilac.
Both the Red-Brown 4s and the Green 5s were issued in 1931 while the overprinted 5s 6d Lilac was issued on 1940.
5/- Official (Vertical). 5/- Official (Horizontal).
In 1933 the 5s Green was overprinted with the word 'OFFICAL' in a vertical format for use by Government Departments. Later in 1938 this was changed to a horizontal format. At the same time the overprint type face changed to the one used in the 1940 Centennial Pictorial Issue Officials.
6/- Rose. 7/- Pale Blue. 7/6 Grey. 8/- Violet.
All four of these stamps were issued in 1931.
9/- Brown/Orange. 10/- Carmine. 11/- Yellow.
Both the 9s Brown-Orange and the 10s Carmine were issued in 1931 while the overprinted 11s appeared later in 1940
12/6 - Claret. 15/- Olive. £1 - Pink.
The 12s 6d Claret was issued in 1935 while the other two values were issued 1931. The £1 stamp was withdrawn from use on 31 October 1960 as the introduction of a new £1 pictorial stamp rendered the stamp obsolete.
22/- Red. 25/- Blue.
30/- Brown. 35/- Orange/Yellow. 35/- Orange.
£2 - Violet £2 10/- Red. £3 - Green.
£3 - Rose. £4 - Blue £4 10/- Grey. £5 - Dark Blue.
I am unsure of the issue dates for the values below here although I think it would be safe to consider the overprinted to have been issued around 1939 - 1940 while the others would be around 1931 - 1935.
£6 Orange £6 Orange Overprint. £7 Maroon. £7 Maroon Overprint.
Both the £6 and £7 were reissued in 1940 with their values overprinted in large bold type.
£8 Green. £8 Green Overprint. £9 Rose. £9 Rose Overprint.
Both the £8 and £9 were reissued in 1940 with their values overprinted in large bold type.
£10 Dark Blue. £10 Dark Blue Overprint. £15 Brown & Blue.
£20 Yellow. £25 Violet.
In the group of stamps above they are all new values except the £10 Dark Blue which was overprinted with large value figures. Below we see that both the 30/- and 35/- were overprinted in 1940.
£30 Red. £30 Red Overprint. £35 Green. £35 Green Overprint.
£40 Pink. £45 Blue. £50 Grey.
Three values added later when the bold overprint was introduced.
£100 Violet & Black. £100 Violet Overprint. £200 Green. £300 Brown.
The £100 Violet with black value text was reissued with the value overprinted in bold type. The other two values were added at the 1940 overprint issue.
£400 Rose. £400 Rose Overprint. £500 Blue. £600 Orange.
In this line we see the £400 Rose was reissued overprinted while the £500 and £600 are new values.
£700 Maroon £800 Dark Green. £900 Yellow.
These three stamps all appear to be new values added when the overprinting was done.
£1,000 Pink.
Finally we come to the £1,000 in pink which does not appear to have been overprinted.
1967 Decimal Arms Postal Fiscals.
From 1 November 1960 the only 'Arms' stamps still in use were the £2, £3 £4 £5, £10, £20 and £50 denominations. These were withdrawn in July 1967 with the introduction of decimal currency, and replaced by $4, $6, $8 and $10 values with the same design. All four values were authorised for and typically used for postage purposes.
$4 Violet. $6 Green.
$8 Light Blue. $10 Dark Blue.
Some of the images and prices in this post were used with permission from the illustrated catalogue of StampsNZ
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