Rare stamps highlight of exhibition

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 40

Rare stamps highlight of exhibition

PA New Plymouth A rare block of four stamps with an estimated value of $lOO,OOO is expected to be an attraction for perhaps 40,000 people at Tarapex ’B6, a national stamp exhibition in New Plymouth this month. The one-penny denomination depicting Maori art was one of four stamps issued to mark the 1906 Christchurch Industrial Exhibition. A gutter block of four of the stamps, complete with top selvedge, will be offered for sale at the exhibition by

the Post Office. It has been offered to raise money for “New Zealand 1990,” the country’s first international stamp exhibition, to be held in Auckland. The one-penny stamp was initially printed in claret. But the claret stamps were. almost immediately withdrawn from sale and reissued in vermilion for printing reasons. Only 60 claret copies sold at the exhibition, and it is believed that only three of those

still exist. The exhibition’s chairman, Mr Jim Kilgour, of New Plymouth, said the block being offered for auction on October 25 was especially valuable because of its mint condition. Mr Kilgour said the--2000 frames of stamps on show valued at $1.5 million will make the exhibition New Zealand's largest. It coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of Taranaki Philatelic Society.