Behind N.Z.’s coinage

Press, 1 June 1985, Page 20

Behind N.Z.’s coinage

The Image Maker: The Art of James Berry. By J. R. Tye. Hodder and Stoughton, 1984. 192 pp. Illustrations. $29.95. For more than 50 years the work of James Berry has been in front of New Zealanders, perhaps more than the work of any other artist. Not that he has been noticed, most of the time, for his products are the over-familiar designs of coins and postage stamps, used a myriad of times, yet examined in detail by only a handful of enthusiasts. Berry,'who died in 1979, deserves to be better remembered. The decimal coins he designed are still in use. Some of New Zealand’s most notable postage stamps, including the Peace issue of 1945 and the Centennial issue of 1940, were his work. His decimal designs circulate on coins in the Cook Islands and Western Samoa. He. has produced commemorative coins for organisations in Ireland, Britain and the United States. His postage stamp designs have been used not only in New Zealand, but in the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Bermuda, the Ross Dependency, and the Tokelaus. This book strikes a nice balance between biography and an assessment of Berry’s work from the time in 1933 when his first design for a, New Zealand health stamp was accepted. The colour plates display many of his stamp designs, including some that were not ever issued. Complete lists are provided of all the stamps and coins that are his work.

Although Tye’s name appears as author, the book also includes specialist contributions from James Brodie, J. N. L. Searle, and C. R. H. Taylor. Collectors of stamps and coins will find it all a delight; general readers should enjoy the discovery of the work that goes on in producing elegant coins and stamps, however much the designs may be overlooked by most of the people who handle them.