THE NEW PENNY STAMP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19485, 15 November 1926, Page 12

THE NEW PENNY STAMP.

The appearance of the new penny stamp, promised by the Post Office some months ago, has been awaited with some misgivings, born of the indignant criticism that was provoked by the department's recent experiments in stamps of higher valuations. The stamp itself disarms these fears. It does not rise as high as those others fell low, but it undoubtedly represents a wonderful advance upon other designs in the current series of the Dominion's postage stamps. Comparison with the old "universal postage" penny, which it supersedes, is wholly to the advantage of the new stamp. The central portrait of the King is impressive, the drawing and the lighting of the features being far superior to those of the royal effigy in the present halfpenny stamp, and if the face is younger than His Majesty's years, the expression is animated and dignified. Limitations of space impose great handicaps upon the stamp-designer's art, but in this case the artist has succeeded in presenting a striking portrait of the King and also in preserving scope for admirable decorative margins symbolical of the Dominion. The "'Zealandia" stamp contains a wealth of decoration of no apparent meaning. To the patriotic New Zealander there will be no need to explain the significance in the new stamp of the crowns and the Southern Cross, the identity of which has not been obscured by its necessary duplication or by its conventional form. Tribute to the Maori race and its art is paid in the finely executed margins. The stamp deserves and will bear the closest examination of its finest details, as it will no doubt receive from all expert philatelists, but the popular judgment will be inclined rather to regard the stamp broadly, to consider whether it is a fitting symbol of the Dominion, likely to convey to the world, over which it will presently be scattered, an adequate impression of the country's importance and character. To every reasonable critic the stamp will be commended by the excellence of its conception and the quality of its technical execution. The' result realises the happiest anticipations and justifies hearty congratulations to the Post .Office* j