BRITISH STAMP CHANGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1934, Page 6

BRITISH STAMP CHANGES.

Some time" in the middle of 1034 our postage stamps will bo handed out to us in a new form; instead of being printed from dies which aro made at the Royal Mint they will be produced by that "photogravure" process which yields the deeper and softer tones that resemble a photographic print (says the "Manchester Guardian"). But the pity is that though the method of reproduction changes the designs remain what they were—which is singularly undistinguished and inadequate as compared with the stamps issued by many of our neighbours. "The most uninteresting and toneless stamps in the world" was the description applied to them in a House of Lords debate last year, but neither that nor other protests to the same effect altered the official attitude that our postage stamps were «ft good as they need be ill the matter of design. One has only to look at the stamps which emerge from other countries in order to sec that such an attitude is completely incapable of .support —except on the ground that almost anything is good enough for Great Britain 80 long as it bears a reasonably recognisable outline of the reigning monarch's head. Vet in praising the new style of printing the authorities themselves depart from that, feeble and unpatriotic standard. They may rest assured that criticism from the outside will never cease until the newer printing has been matched by newer and more worthy designs.