1997 Royal Golden Wedding Anniversary

        Princess Elizabeth was born on 21 April 1926, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. In 1936, on the abdication of King Edward VIII, the Duke and Duchess became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother) and Princess Elizabeth heir presumptive to the throne.

        The Duke of Edinburgh, formally His Royal Highness Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, was born on 10 June 1921, on the Greek island of Corfu. He is the only son of Their Royal Highnesses Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. His mother was the sister of Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

        On the 20th of November 1947, cheered by the teeming throngs lining the entire length of the processional route, supported by crowned heads and invited dignitaries at the ceremony itself, and before millions more through the medium of television throughout the United Kingdom and abroad, Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh were married at Westminster Abbey, London.

        In January 1952 The Princess and Duke, on behalf of the King, left England for a tour of East Africa, Australia and New Zealand. However, on 6 February, while holidaying in Kenya, King George VI died. Princess Elizabeth immediately returned to England as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and she was crowned on 2 June 1953 in Westminster Abbey.
       In 1997 the couple celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary, 50 years of marriage. To mark this special anniversary, NZ Post issued a single stamp showing Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. The stamp was only issued on special miniature sheets of 10 x 40c stamps.

1915 King George V

Definitive Tour.
Back to Edward VI Definitives.                              Forward to 1935 Pictorials.

1915 -  King George V

Definitive Issue.

The King Edward VII stamps had only been on issue for six months when he died in 1910 and his son King George V ascended to the throne. It was quickly decided that a new set of stamps should replace the Edward VII stamps, but it would be five years before the new set was issued. There were various reasons for the five year delay - difficulty finding a designer, difficulty sourcing appropriate inks, and the perfectionist nature of the then Postmaster-General Sir Heaton Rhodes, himself a keen philatelist. Rhodes was keen to return to the simplicity of the 1855 Chalon Heads and the English 1840 penny black and two pence blue stamps. If you compare the George V stamp on the left with the English 1d Black on the right, you can see how closely they resemble each other.

The initial issue contained the 1½d, 2d violet, 2½d, 3d, 4d yellow, 4½d, 6d, 7½d, 9d and 1/- stamps. The 1½d, 4½d and 7½d stamps were new values introduced for parcel post and it was not thought necessary to have 5d and 8d values. All this careful planning came unstuck when World War I began and a halfpenny tax was imposed on all mail other than newspapers. As the new issue did not have 5d or 8d stamps, the Edward VII issue stamps continued in use until 1922 when 5d and 8d recess print stamps were finally introduced. However, within a week of issue of the 8d blue it was realised that the colour was too easily confused with the 2½d stamp, so the stamp was reprinted brown as the 7½d brown stamp had been withdrawn by that stage. This ought to have made the 8d blue stamp very rare, but pressure from stamp collectors forced the post office to continue selling the stamps.

In 1915 the tax on receipts was increased to 2d. The 2d violet stamp was too dark for pen cancellations to show up, and so the colours of the 2d violet and 4d yellow were swapped in 1916. Many used copies of the 4d yellow were cancelled after it was withdrawn and 1915 cancellations are hard to find.

1909 Edward VII Definitives.

 Definitive Tour.

Back to Universal / Dominion.                                 Forward to George V Definitives.

          King Edward VII (b.9th November 1841 – d.6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from the 22nd of January 1901 until his death on the 6th of May 1910. Before finally becoming King, Edward held the title of Prince of Wales, and has the dubious distinction of being heir apparent to the throne longer than anyone else in British history. He was caught in a similar situation to the current Prince of Wales, having a mother as queen, lasting well into her 80s. Like Prince Charles will be today. Edward was an older man himself before he became King.
           Because the 1898 Pictorials had only just been issued when he ascended to the throne, New Zealand stamps bearing the King's head were not issued until November 1909, and even then they were not distributed widely until stocks of the pictorials had been exhausted. In the end the stamps bearing his image were only on sale for six months before he died. Once issued, most values remained on sale until 1915, and the five penny and eight penny stamps were still in use in 1920, ten years after King Edward's death. The one penny dominion was still in use until 1926.

           The Imperial Conference of 1907 granted the self-governing colonies of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland the status of Dominion. This recognized these territories as autonomous communities within the British Empire, and established them as equals to the United Kingdom, making them essentially independent members of the Commonwealth of Nations. In many ways, this issue was a celebration of New Zealand's new-found independence and "Dominion of New Zealand' appears proudly at the top of each stamp.

1873 Newspaper Stamp.

Definitive Tour.

Back to Fullfaced Queens.                Forward to 1874 - 1882 Side Faced Queens.

  Originally there was no charge for newspapers forwarded through the post for delivery within New Zealand. However, with the number of newspapers posted frequently dwarfing paid mail, the Post Office decided it had to charge for newspaper delivery. A rate of 1d was imposed in 1864 and dropped again in 1865 due to public pressure, only to be reinstated in 1867.

          Inspired by the English 1870 ½d newspaper stamp, a decision was made in 1872 to reduce the cost of newspaper delivery to½d  and produce a similar stamp featuring a side view of the young Queen Victoria.

          The stamp was designed by the Government Printer, John Davies based on the contemporary English newspaper stamp. A woodblock die was carved in Melbourne, Australia, and electrotypes were produced from it by W.H. Kirk in Wellington making this the first stamp where the design, printing plate preparation and printing plates themselves were completed in New Zealand.

          The stamps were printed for 22 years. For 17 of those a special purpose paper watermarked with a six-rayed irregular star was used.

1874 - 1882 The Side - Face Issues.

   Definitive Tour.

Back to 1973 Newspaper Stamp.                Forward to 1898 Pictorials.

     I have never been particularly interested in the two Queen Victoria - Side Face Issues. To me, they never compared in appearance to Queen Victoria - Full-Faced Queens, that preceded them. So, since there is a big gap in this blog where these classic issues should be, we will take the month of August to produce a short series of posts on the three major definitive issues of the late 1800s.

       In this post will feature the final two Queen Victoria stamp issues, the 1874 First Side-Face Queens and the 1882 Second Side-Face Queens. In a second post, I am going to cover the 1898 Pictorial Issue, New Zealand's first pictorial issue. Here we will also be looking at the various additions and reprints of this issue, as well as the 1900 Pictorial Centenary Issue.

         Meanwhile, our other contributor Mary, is going to do a series of three or four smaller posts featuring various subjects from these main issues and from this same time period. I must say here that she has a couple of surprise items to show you, including the most expensive stamp in New Zealand.

1855 Full Faced Queens - Part Four.

Definitives Tour.  

Forward to 1973 Newspaper Stamp.

Links:- Full-Faced Queens.
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part One.
                    A basic introduction to the Full Faced Queens issues. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Two.
                    Looking at factors effecting the condition and value of Classic Stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Three.
                    A collection of covers from before and using Full Faced Queen stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Four.
                    Modern use of the Full Faced Queen design.

        This is the last post in my series on Full-Faced Queens, New Zealand's first postal stamp issue.
        Over the years the Full-Face Queen design has been reused a number of times as New Zealand has marked various anniversaries since their first issue. They have appeared, either as copies of the original stamps or with the design updated with more modern content.

1955 Centennial of Postage Stamps in New Zealand.
        There were three stamps in this issue but we are only interested in the 4d value in this post.  In this case the original design was updated with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II instead of Queen Victoria. Since New Zealand was still using the old Sterling currency the value could still be written as "THREE PENCE" rather than the more common 3d.

Queen Elizabeth II - 3d

For the other stamps in this issue see my posts

1955 Stamp Centenary. 

2005 - 150 Years of New Zealand Stamps.

1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Three

Definitives Tour.  

Forward to 1973 Newspaper Stamp.

Links:- Full-Faced Queens.
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part One.
                    A basic introduction to the Full Faced Queens issues. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Two.
                    Looking at factors effecting the condition and value of Classic Stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Three.
                    A collection of covers from before and using Full Faced Queen stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Four.
                    Modern use of the Full Faced Queen design.

   

       In the third part of the Full-Faced Queens we continue our look at New Zealand's first issue of postage stamps by looking at some of the covers used during this period.

       Before New Zealand issued pre-paid postage stamps letters were hand stamped to show payment had been made for postage. These hand strikes would show words such as "Paid At Auckland" or "Paid At Nelson" and often how much had been paid would be written in pencil of crayon. 

        In many cases, when we study covers from this period we find these hand strike post marks are almost impossible to read. This is because either the original strike was poorly executed or the mark has faded over time. 

        In these post we are going to look at a few pre-postage covers and then we will look at some covers from the Full-Faced Queen period. The quality of many of these covers were not good to start with and the process of up-loading them has made them worse but I still believe you will get some idea of what these early covers were like.

King George VI

Definitive Tour.
Back to 1935 Pictorials.          Forward to Elizabeth II Definitives.

King George VI Coronation.

     King George VI was the second son of King George V and his wife, Queen Mary, was youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
          In 1936 following the abdication from the throne of his elder brother (King Edward VIII), the Duke of York became King George VI.  The coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth took place at Westminster Abbey the following year. To mark this event New Zealand issued this set of three values.

   

Queen Elizabeth - A Younge Queen.

 Definitive Tour.
Back to George VI Definitives.                                              Forward to 1960 Pictorials.

Queen Elizabeth II

      

         After researching for the 60th Anniversary Issue post in this blog I have become more interested in stamps featuring Queen Elizabeth II. I have decided to do a few more posts looking at her life in greater detail through the stamps of New Zealand. This post covers her early life and photos on stamps, her coronation, then the first 1953 - 1955 definitive issues. For extra interest, I've included a few Postal History items as well.



1855 Full Faced Queens - Part Two

Definitives Tour.  

Forward to 1973 Newspaper Stamp.

Links:- Full-Faced Queens.

          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part One.
                    A basic introduction to the Full Faced Queens issues. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Two.
                    Looking at factors affecting the condition and value of Classic Stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Three.
                    A collection of covers from before and using Full Faced Queen stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Four.
                    The modern use of the Full Faced Queen design.

        In this second post on the Full-Faced Queens, we will look at the condition of these stamps and try to understand why they are valued as they are today. Included on this page are some errors caused during printing. Finally, we will look at a complete set of Full-Faced Queens that was sold in 2007.

  

1855 The Full-Face Queens - Part One

Definitives Tour.  

Forward to 1973 Newspaper Stamp.

Links:- Full-Faced Queens.
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part One.
                    A basic introduction to the Full Faced Queens issues. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Two.
                    Looking at factors effecting the condition and value of Classic Stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Three.
                    A collection of covers from before and using Full Faced Queen stamps. 
          1855 Full-Faced Queens - Part Four.
                    Modern use of the Full Faced Queen design.



       What better way to start this blog again than to feature New Zealand's first issue of postage stamps, The Full-face Queens. This post is only an introduction to this set. I plan to do a page or some further posts on the Full-face Queens at a later date. (Links to these pages have now been added above.)

          

        Following the example of Great Britain, which first introduced postage stamps in 1840, New Zealand decided to introduce a system of pre-payment of postage using similar stamps in 1850. It would take another five years before these new stamps were finally issued. 
        The set originally comprised only three stamps - 1d (penny), 2d (penny) and 1s (shilling). These were printed in England by Perkins, Bacon. Other values were added later. The 6d appeared in 1859, the 3d in 1863 and the 4d in 1865. These additional values, together with all reprints of the original three denominations, were printed in New Zealand from printing plates prepared in England. Colour changes were made to three of the values in 1871. The 1d changed from red to brown, the 2d from blue to orange and the 6d from brown to blue. I have also seen examples of the 1s which appear more blue than the usual green.