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Counterpart, Denoting, Fine Paid, Mortgagee's Indemnity and Not Liable stamps

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New Zealand fiscal and postage stamps were overprinted for various revenue purposes. Some are given below. Counterpart Counterpart stamps were attached to duplicate (i.e. counterpart) documents provided that the full stamp duty had been paid on the original. The counterpart fee was 2s 6d. The first issue was in 1870 and the design was Die I of the 1867 Revenue issue. The stamp on the left is Die II and was issued in 1880. In 1887, stamps were issued in the design of the revenue stamps of 1880, but with the word Counterpart in rather small letters above the value as in the example on the below. In 1916 the fee was increased to 3s 0d and ordinary revenue stamps were overprinted diagonally in black although special printings were made as the colour was always yellow. It exists both perf 14 and perf 14½x14. In 1927, the George V 3s 0d Admiral stamp was printed on Cowan paper, perf 14, in orange yellow and overprin...
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What I Like in a Stamp

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         What do I like in a postage stamp design? This was an interesting question which a friend asked me today when I told him I was working on a blog about postage stamps. So I decided to answer that question with a post on stamp designs I like and dislike.

First which stamps do I like?        
          I like a stamp to either tell a story or depict a person, object or scene clearly by using a drawing or photograph. To explain this I have decided to use the 1967 - 68 definitive issue, often known as the new decimals.
        First the "Primary Industry" set of 1968.

 
        Fishing Industry                                      Fruit Growing Industry.


 
    Timber Industry                                               Wool Industry

 
  Sheep and Beef.                                             Dairy Industry.

        This set of six stamps each depict a primary industry of New Zealand. Each stamp sort of tells a story by showing two pictures of a primary industry. The only stamp I do not particular like is the 18c Wool Industry. You can see the sheep which is good but then the design depicting wool sort of spoils the appearance of the stamp as well as making it different to the other five stamps.

        Now our next example are the low values from the main definitive series issued the year before in 1967. These were mainly a re-design of the 1960 definitive series with cent denominations replacing the earlier penny ones.

   
              Manuka - ½c              Karaka - 1c               Kowhai - 2½c      Kowhai-kaka - 2c            

 
        Puarangi - 3c            Matua Tikumu - 4c



  
 Pikiarero - 5c               Koromiko - 6c                Rata - 7c

            The lower values of the 1967 definitives were native flowers. They are attractive stamps clearly displaying each flower with bright colours. Out of all of them the 5c is probably the least attractive design while the 2½c is my favourite.

       
Now which stamps do I dislike?
          Probably the designs which I dislike the most are sets which do not show clear pictures of their subjects. These stamps are often stylised or too simple in their design having an almost cartoonish appearance. The first example is the 1972 Ross Dependency issue. For a series which has featured some of New Zealand's best stamps this issue in my opinion was a let down.

   
           Skua - 3c                         Air Force Hercules - 4c             Shackleton's Hut - 5c

Supply ship HMNZS 'Endeavour' - 8c

 
 Scott Base - 10c                                        Tabular Ice Flow - 18c

         Then there is the family issue of 1981 where you can't even see the faces of the people depicted. I like the idea behind these stamps, promoting family values, but the designs just do not attract me to the stamps at all.
1981 Family Life


 
At Play - 20c                           Young and Old - 25c                           At Home - 30c

 
 At Church - 35c

         Finally we get to what must be some of New Zealand's worst postage stamps, the 1981 Government Life issue. While these stamps probably did the job they were designed for, after the real lighthouses depicted in earlier issues, in my opinion this set has nothing going for it except bright colours. Another problem is that some of the colours are so dark that the make the text very hard to read. I'm not even going to bother putting a label on them.
1981 Government Life Insurance Office Lighthouses.





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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