1955 Stamp Centenary

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		Cat.	Mint Unhinged	Mint Hinged	Fine Used
2d	Maori Mail Runner / Carrier	96a	$0.55	$0.45	$0.45
3d	Full Face Queen Elizabeth II	96b	$0.55	$0.45	$0.45
4d	DC3 Airmail Aeroplane	96c	$0.55	$0.45	$0.90

	Set of 3 individual stamps	96d	$1.55	$1.30	$1.70

	First Day Cover - 18 July 1955	96e			$4.50
	… 2d (96a), 3d (96b), 4d (96c)

This issue commemorates the 100th anniversary of New Zealand's first pre-paid postage stamps.

The 2d stamp shows a Maori mail runner - the first means of overland mail delivery in New Zealand. Mail runners often had to cross difficult terrain and swim treacherous rivers to deliver the mail.

The 4d stamp shows the extent of progress in the first 100 years with a DC3 with the National Airways Corporation insignia alluding to airmail delivery.

The 3d stamp echoes the background of the first stamps of 1855 with Queen Elizabeth's coronation portrait replacing the Chalon portrait of Queen Victoria in her coronation robes.

The stamps were issued on the 18th of July 1955 - 100 years to the day after the issue of New Zealand's first stamps.

Bibliography

The Postage Stamps of New Zealand Volume IV

Edited by R. J. G. Collins FRPSNZ and C.W. Watts FRPSNZ

Published 1960 by The Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand Incorporated

Pages 426 - 427

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