DOMINION’S RAREST POSTAGE STAMP

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 199, 20 May 1936, Page 10

DOMINION’S RAREST POSTAGE STAMP

Full-face Queen Victoria DUNEDIN WOMAN MAY POSSESS ONE Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, May 19. Recently northern newspaper attention was drawn to what is claimed to be New Zealand’s rarest stamp, a 3d. lilac full-face Queen Victoria issue, which was printed on pelure paper and had no watermark. It was also turned out without perforation for some reason or other. It was stated that none of this particular variety has ever been found as a used specimen, and the price of £1750 tells the story of bow rare even unused ones are. There are thousands of varieties of these full-face Queens, and in a collection sold for a large sum in Auckland a few weeks ago 4000 of these were classified. It is stated, however, that 74 years ago the then Government Printer found that he was short of the special water-marked paper on which the Colony’s postage stamps were then printed, and he used a few sheets of another kind to make up the ha lance of an order. To-day specimens of those stamps are worth £1750. There is a woman in Dunedin who believes that she may have one of these rare and valuable stamps and, with a view to establishing the fact, she has been making inquiries in various quarters in the hope that she will prove to be the possessor of New Zealand’s rarest stamp.