PHILATELIr,
BULLETIN.
Issued by the Authority of the Director-General, Post & Telegraph Department, Wellington, C.1, New Ze!!land. No.3. 1•
18th December. 1952.
Provisional Issue: ~d.- The inLtial postage rate on letters posted in New Zealand on an after the 1st January, 1953, will be - Inland and British Empire p 3d. for the first oz, a~d id, for each additional oz.; Foreign, 4d. for the first OZ, and 2!d. for each additional oz. As present stocks of the 3d. denomination will be insufficient to meet the estimated demand until further supplies are obtained from England a quantity of the current id. stamps (King George VI) has been overprinted "3d.". No actual date of ~ssue for these stamps has been fixed but they are being placed on sale as stocks of the current 3d. denomination become exhausted. As soon as additional supplies of the 3d. King George VI stsmp are received from the printers in England the provisional issue will be withdrawn. Up to the date of this publication sheets from the following plates have been overprinted:Plate Nos. 108, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118 •••• In many instances the plate number has been partially cut off owing to the need for trimming the sheets before overprinting. Each item of postal stationery will be suitably overprinted to comply with the new rates,
2.
King George VI stamis,- In its issue of the 20th June p 1952, the philatelic journal Stamp Collecting" (London) carried an advertisement offering for sale a block of sixteen imperforate id. King George VI stamps, The New Zealand Post Office therefore asked the High Commissioner in London to make inqUiries into this matter. Prior to that date, however, the New Zealand Society of Great Britain had notified the stamp printers concerned that imperforate stamps of the id. denomination were being offered for sale. The printers immediately instituted inquiries and, as a result of their investigations, placed the matter in the hands of the police. Later a man WBS charged at the Marylebone Police r,ourt with receiving these stamps knowIng them to have been stolen. He was convicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. Ultimately, 46 imperforate copies of the stamps (which are believed to have been printed in 1947 from plate 128) were recovered. As it is probable that a full sheet was stolen, 194 copies of the stamp have not yet been accounted for. r-ollectors are warned against purchasing any of these stamps; or any of the imperforate pictorial stamps of 1935-47; or any stamps from the printer's waste of the Islands series of 1920 and 1932, none of which have official recognition, since they were not issued by the Post Office. Persons trading in or sttempting to dispose of any or these stamps are liable to prosecution, Coronation Issue.- To conform with the increase in postage rates referred to in paragraph 1, it has been necessary to change certain values in this issue as well as to transpose the designs of the 2d. and 3d, denominations. The ...
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The denominations and designs w1ll now be:2d.
Buckingham Palace with a medallion portrait of the Queen on the right. (37mm x 21mm). 3d. Portrait of He~ Majesty the Queen, bordered on each side by a panel in Yaori motif, with the Crown and Royal Cypher E 11 R incorporated in the design. (21mm x 25mm). 4d. state Coach, as used in the Coronation Procession, with a medallion portrait of the Queen on the left. (37mm x 21mm). Westminster Abbey with "Big Ben" in the distance and the Bd. Crown and Royal Cypher included in the design. (21mm x 25mm). 1~.6d. Crown and Royal Sceptre. (37mm x 21mm). As stated previously the caption "Coronation 1953" appears in each design. The 3d. and-Bd. values are being produced by Messrs Harrison & Sons, High Wycombe, England, using the photogravure process, and the 2d. and 4d. denominations - line engraved - by Messrs De La Rue & Co. Ltd., London. The production of the 1s.6d. denomination, also line engraved, has been entrusted to Messrs Waterlow & Sons, London. The first four denominations were designed by Vr James Berry of Wellington. The design for the 1s.6d. denomination was prepared by MrL.C. Mitcnell, also of Wellington. All values will be printed in sheets of 120 stamps, Special souvenir covers will not; be issued by the Post -Office but in the case of orders receIved from overseas clients the Stamps Division, General Post OffIce, wellIngton, wIll affix sets of the stamps to plain white envelopes and ha~e them cancelled on the date of issue. Any such orders must reach this Office by 15th May, 1953. In addition to the cost of the stamps required, a servicing fee of 1!d. for each cover - reduced to 1d~ if a client supplies his own addressed cover - will be charged. The actual date of "issue and any further details of this series will be furnished in a later Bulletin. The probable date or issue is the 3rd June, 1953. 4.
Coronation stamps for IslaDd Dependencies.- It has been decided to issue two special stamps in the Cook Islands, Niue and western Samoa and one in the Tokelau Islands to commemorate the Coronation of Her Majesty the Queen. The designs will be the same as those of corresponding value in the New Zealand set except that in each case the woiods "New Zealand lt will be replaced by the name of the dependency concerned. ~he stamp which portrays Her Majesty the Queen will be issued in each of the four Dependencies named above. The value will be 3d. in the case of the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau Islands and 2d. in the case of western Samoa. The second stamp selected is that which features Westminster Abbey. The value for the Cook Islands, Niue and Western Samoa will be 6d. (not Bd. as in the New Zealand series). This stamp will not be issued in the Tokelau Islands. Special souvenir covers are not being issued. Persons in New Zealand who desire to have sets cancelled on the first day of sale should rorward their orders, together with addressed envelopes, direct to the respective Postmasters as shown hereunder:Niue - postmaster, Niue. Cook Islands - Postmaster p Rarotonga, Cook Islands. western samoa and ~okelau Islands - Postmaster, Apia, western Samoa. The Stamps Division, General Post Office, will prepare covers for overseas collectors and arrange for them to be forwarded to the respe~tive Islands for date-stamping and onward despatch. Owing to the .•.
-3the infrequency of mails to some of the Islands the Post Office cannot guarantee to give this service to orders received after April 15th, 1953. The servicing fee will be the same as that charged for New Zealand covers. It is expected that the stamps will be issued in June, possibly on the same day as the New Zealand set .. The. date of issue, however, is subject to confirmation and deta1le w111 be furnished later.
5.
Queen Elizabeth IT Definitive Issue.~ Ths designs and range of the Queen Elizabeth IT definitive Issue which is to replace the presept King George VI series have now been decided on. The Queen Elizabeth , iS8ue will introduce three new features which in recent years have not been common to New Zealand postage-stamps. They are:(1) (2) (3)
the omission of the words "Postage and Revenue"; the addition of two higher-value stamps - namely, 5s. and 10s.; a separate "Official" set for use by Government Departments.
In the new issue Her Majesty the Queen will be portrayed in three different poses - one pose being used for values from id, to 8d.; a second pose for those from 9d, to 1s,6d.; and a third pose for the high values, vi~. 3s., 5s. and 10s. The denominations and sizes of the new stamps will be:id. 1d, 1td. 2d. 3d. 4d. 6d. 8d.
18mm x 21mm (240 up)
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21mm x 25mm (160 up) 9d. 1s, " " " " 1s.6d, • " " " " 3s. 5s. 108.
21mm x 37mm (120 up) tt
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Two of the accepted designs - those for the pence and lower shilling values - were prepar~d by Mr L,C. Mitohell of Wellington, while that for the higher shilling values was the work of Mr James Berry, also of Wellington, "Official".The ttOfficial" series will comprise seven denominations. A separate distinctive design drawn by Mr Berry and incorporating the word "Official" will be used. All the stamps in this series will be the same size - 18mm x 21mm (240 up) - and the denominations will be:1d"
1!d"
2d,p 3d"
4d"
9d, and is.
It is proposed to place the new Queen Elizaoeth stamps and the Official set on sale after the Coronation issue has been sold out, probably about next september. 6.
King George VI "Official".- Further overprints of King stamps tor offiCIal use were:1id. 3d,
7.
Plate 136 Plate 139
George VI
28th June, 1952. 2nd December~ 1952.
Government Life Insurance stamps.The id. value printed on . WlggIns Teape Royal Cypher grade paper W8"Ef1SlJUe-d in November, 1951. Previous stocks were printed on st. Cuthber~ Royal Cypher paper.
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8.
stamp Duty St~p8.- The 25s. value with the watermark inverted was issued in August, 1951.
9.
Coils for stamp Issuing Appliances.- Coils of 2d., 3d., 4d., 5d., bd., Bd., 9d., 1s. and 1s.3d. are now available with printed numbers on the dividing strips.
10.
Registered Letter Envelopes.- A new type of envelope having the flap sealing on the back instead of the front was issued in November, 1952.
11.
ca~bell
on
Island.- The Post Office at Campbell Island was opened he 1st September, 1952.