1949 3d HMS Vanguard.

Here she is - 1949 3d HMS Vanguard.
Scroll down this page to see her and her six sisters, the only seven known examples.

1987 New Zealand Post Vesting Day.

       Government services in New Zealand went through some enormous changes in 1987. One of the most significant of these changes saw the New Zealand Post Office split into three State-Owned Enterprises to separately handle the postal and agency, Telecom and the banking businesses of the former Government Department.

        New Zealand Post Limited formally took over the administration of the postal and agency functions from the New Zealand Post Office.  To mark the occasion of the establishment of New Zealand Post Limited, a set of two stamps were issued.

2 x 40c - New Zealand Post.

Two 40 cent se-tenant stamps depicted various elements of postal business from acceptance to delivery including bus, aeroplane, delivery van, postbox and handwritten pad - together with the new corporate logo. When these two stamps are placed together, they tell a story of mail service within New Zealand.

2010 Regional Postage

At the request of Post Shops in tourist destinations around New Zealand, New Zealand Post tested the popularity of regional booklets of stamps with this issue of two booklets for Kaikoura.

1989 New Mail Centre Openings

On the 9th August 1989, NZ Post officially opened two new mail centres designed for the faster and more efficient sorting of mail for Hamilton and Auckland's North Shore. Special covers with pre-printed stamps were created to mark this important milestone. 

The front cover showing views of both centres. The stamp is an NZ Post mail van.

The reverse side with text regarding this event.

(See the text enlargement below.)

Annual New Zealand Stamp Collections.

Each year New Zealand Post produces 'The New Zealand Collection' - a comprehensive album of all the stamps produced in in the past year. This premium publication features stunning pictorial images and extensive commentary on the year's stamp issues from some of New Zealand’s most well known personalities.

The advert header from the NZ Post Site.

We have decided to feature four years of these collections (2013 - 2016) on this blog since it's part of the New Zealand Stamp Scene. I know it will turn into a free advert for NZ Post but I hope that over time this post will become more of the historic page. Prices are included for interest only and these items will not be sold by this blog. For current price and availability please contact NZ Post via their website  https://stamps.nzpost.co.nz/

 

2013 Collection.                                        2014 Collection.                                           2015 Collection.

                                         
2016 Collection.                                               2017 Collection.

1900 The Wellington Flag.

        The Wellington Flag is a machine cancellation that appeared in 1900 as New Zealand was celebrating the turn of the century. It does not seem to have been used in any location other than Wellington, hence it normally referred to as The Wellington Flag. The cancel shows the Union Jack in the top left corner with the four stars of the Southern Cross against a vertical lines background. In the centre of the stars are the large letters 'NZ' for New Zealand. The design even features a wave as if its being moved in a gentle breeze. I believe the date and Post Office name was part of this cancel as it appears in exactly the same location in every example I've seen.

         Now this cancel first captured Allan and Mary's interest when they found it on a couple of stamps that had been removed from issue long before this cancel appeared. These are shown again at the bottom of this page.
        One day recently it was suggested that we should go back and try to find more about this cancel. I was given the task and my answer to that is not much, other than what has been said above, but what I did find were some very interesting covers. I hope these will go some way to telling us more.

We invite anyone who knows more to contact us via a comment below.

State "Non-Publish" if you don't want your comment published.  

Frama Stamps 1984 - 1996

A variable value stamp, is a gummed or self-adhesive postage stamp of a common design, issued by a machine similar to an Automatic Teller Machine, with a value of the user's choice printed at the time the stamp is dispensed. The value may be variable or from a fixed selection of postal rates. The stamps and machines are typically for use in retail or post office environments. As only the postal value varies from stamp to stamp, these stamps have been described as key type stamps. They are also closely related to meter stamps from postage meters.
As the concept has developed, a variety of different names have been used, including, but not limited to, Automatenmarken (Germany), ATM stamps (USA), Autopost stamps (USA), Frama labels (Europe) or machine labels (Stanley Gibbons catalogues).



The Frama company of Switzerland produced a special type of patterned paper suitable for dispensing by machine and electronic printing that could be used to create an unlimited number of different stamp designs. The British Post Office used the paper experimentally in vending machines in 1984-85 but the experiment was not regarded as a success. Frama labels were also introduced in Switzerland in 1976. Frama labels were distinctive for the whole design being printed in one operation onto the special paper, including the value, rather than just the value being printed onto a pre-printed stamp.
New Zealand trialled these labels in 1984 and continued to use them through until the mid - late 1990s. It would seem that like was discovered in Great Britain, this system of per-paid postage was not completely successful.  

This post will follow the story of New Zealand Frama Stamps from their trial in 1984 through to their last issue in 1996. Along the way we will also look at First Day Covers and flaws where the vending machine misprinted.

When Allan suggested I do a post on these, my first thought was "Boring!" Then I looked at them and became fascinated of them. Soon I was telling things of Frama Stamps even our stamp experts didn't know. Ha! Ha! 

1974 - New Zealand Day

          The Treaty of Waitangi was the climax of a long series of events which finally led the then British Government to establish the sovereignty of the Crown over the islands of New Zealand.  When Captain William Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands as Lieutenant Governor, the northern chiefs were summoned to Waitangi for the purpose of negotiating a treaty.  After much explanation and discussion, forty-five chiefs signed the Treaty by drawing their moko, the tattooed design on each face, upon the parchment on 6 February 1840.

         In 1932, Governor-General Lord Bledisloe and his wife purchased and presented to the nation the run-down house of James Busby, where the treaty was signed. The Treaty house and grounds were made a public reserve, which was dedicated on 6 February 1934. This event is considered by some to be the first Waitangi Day, although celebrations were not yet held annually. It would not be until the 1940s that any real attempt was made to celebrate it, but even then, it was not considered a holiday. 

         In 1971 the Labour shadow minister of Māori Affairs, Matiu Rata, introduced a private member's bill to make Waitangi Day a national holiday, to be called New Zealand Day. This was unsuccessful and did not pass into law. After the 1972 election of the third Labour government under Norman Kirk, it was announced that from 1974 Waitangi Day would become a national holiday, known as New Zealand Day. The New Zealand Day Act 1973 was passed in 1973.

         For Norman Kirk, the change was simply an acceptance that New Zealand was ready to move forward towards a broader concept of nationhood. Diplomatic posts had for some years marked this day, and so it seemed timely in view of the country's increasing role on the international stage that the national day becomes known as New Zealand Day. At the 1974 celebrations, the Flag of New Zealand was flown for the first time at the top of the flagstaff at Waitangi, rather than the Union Flag, and a replica of the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand was also flown.
          The election of the third National government in 1975 led to New Zealand Day being renamed Waitangi Day, because, the new Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon, did not like the name "New Zealand Day" and many Māori felt the new name debased the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi. Another Waitangi Day Act was passed in 1976 to change the name of the day back to Waitangi Day.

For an index to all our posts concerning The Maori People.

1962 Covers to Switzerland

   

    While searching for other items for this blog, we can upon these three interesting covers that were sent during 1962, from Berhampore, a suburb of Wellington, to Zurich, Switzerland. They were sent via airmail, each cover clearly displaying a printed 'By Air Mail' label, and red/white/blue edging. They each contained a different variety of postage stamps. If you add the values you will discover the totals differ greatly so it appears that these selections were chosen more for their stamp collecting interest, than exact postal rates.

1894 The Wreck of the SS Wairarapa.

         In the third worst shipwreck ever in New Zealand waters, 121 lives were lost when the Union Steam Ship Company steamer SS Wairarapa struck Miners Head, on the northern tip of Great Barrier Island, 90 km north-east of Auckland. As the island’s only contact with the outside world was via a weekly steamer, news of the shipwreck took three days to reach Auckland. This highlighted the need for better communication between the island and the mainland. A need that would eventually lead to the Great Barrier Pigeongram Services.

1955 Stamp Centenary

      This set has already been shown on this blog, in our post 2005 - 150 Years of New Zealand Stamps, but considering the importance of this issue to the history of New Zealand Stamps, we felt it deserved its own page. I believe the clever way these three stamps were designed is often over looked by collectors in their search for more attractive and exciting stamps. I hope this page below might go some way to correcting this.

         The 1955 featured the three values shown above. While appearing to be simple designs, I will show you below that some thought has gone into them, cleverly linking the stamps and postal system of 1855, with the stamps and postal system of 1955.  

1941 Cover to the HMS Prince of Wales.

Wow! This is postal history at its best.
          I found this cover while I was looking for examples for my third page on the 1931 Arms Fiscals. As I researched the last voyage of the HMS Prince of Wales I became more intrigued with the story. It quickly became clear that this cover never could have reached the ship in time, particularly if it went via London.
          When I showed Allan he suggested we give this item its own special post. So this post includes the cover and its story. Then I have shown a photograph of the mighty warship Prince of Wales and a description of the Japanese attack. Finally, as an extra bonus I have a Japanese postcard celebrating the "Sea Battle off Malaya 10 December 1941" which led to the loss of the two battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse.  

Revenue Use of Postage Stamps Around 1900.

         During our research for this current series of posts on the stamps from 1873 to 1907 we came across a number of items on which stamps had been used for revenue purposes. These have been displayed in the various posts but we have decided to put them all together here so they can be compared on one page.

First off a bit of background. In 1880 it was decided to combine the payment of postage and 'revenue' - such as government fees and import duties into a single set of stamps. All previous issues of stamps had only been usable for postage purposes or for revenue purposes. Apart from the 'Postage and Revenue' inscription, most of the second sideface stamps were modified designs from the 1874 issue stamps they replaced and are very similar. The key to telling these two issues form one another is the 1874 series carries the word "Postage" while the 1882 series carries the words "Postage & Revenue."
This opened the way for a very diverse range of documents to have 'postage' stamps attached, as can be seen in the items below. Mainly they relate to the transfer of larger amounts of money without using the money itself but there is one document, the application for a Hotel Liquor Licence included here as well.  Further down is some examples of newspaper wrappers too. If we come across any others of interest we will add them to this post. 

1963 Crash Cover.

        Here is something a bit different.

        On 3 July 1963, a NAC Douglas DC-3 crashed into the Kaimai Ranges in New Zealand's North Island while flying in clouds and turbulence. The aircraft was flying from Whenuapai Airport, in Auckland, to Tauranga.

       The crash happened when the aircraft struck a vertical rock face after encountering a strong downdraft. The aircraft may also have commenced an early descent with the pilots unaware of the true position of the aircraft, on the wrong side of the ranges. All 23 people on board were killed. The wreckage remains on the hillside to this day, with a small memorial cairn beside it.

1949 - 1952 Cancelled Royal Visits.

1953 Royal Visit.

The 2001 Royal Visits Issue.

2013 Coronation 60th Anniversary

Queen Elizabeth II 

60th Anniversary of the Coronation.