Rare Stamps On Display In Whakatane Exhibition

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31346, 17 April 1967, Page 14

Rare Stamps On Display In Whakatane Exhibition

Stamp collections from all parts of the world are arriving in Whakatane in readiness for the New Zealand national stamp exhibition which will open there this week.

More than 12 months of work by the organising committee and more than £3OOO has been spent in making it the finest display of stamps seen in New Zealand. Exhibits for the court of honour, the focal point of any such exhibition, have arrived from American, English and European collectors. All the displays are of items rarely, if ever, seen in the Dominion. An order from Bonaparte to a junior officer and signed by him complements letters from Lord Nelson.

Many modern New Zealand rarities find their way to collectors overseas and are not seen by local collectors. One item is the 2s 1965 Parliamentary Conference issue from which the red colour is missing with the result that no value appears. A copy of this stamp will be seen at Whakatane, for the first time in New Zealand.

Another stamp is the Is 9d 1963 railways centenary issue,

a sheet of which was found with the red colour missing and 16 were sold to collectors. The remaining 104 were stolen and only four were later recovered.

Stamp exhibitions in New Zealand are rare. The one at Whakatane is only the fourth of such size to be held in New Zealand since 1940 The purpose of the exhibition is to educate collectors in modern methods of mounting, to advertise the benefits of collecting, and to provide an opportunity for those with similar interests to meet