COMMERCE STAMPS

Grey River Argus, 16 October 1936, Page 2

COMMERCE STAMPS

Three Values Exhausted TOTAL PRINTINGS ANNOUNCED. The (Post Office announces that stocks are exhausted of three denominations of the special Commerce stamps. These are the 2-ld, 4d and 6d. The Department, in order to specially mark the distinctive occasion of the first holding in New Zealand of the Empire Conference of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the Brit'sh Empire, prepared a. special issue of commemorative stamps of five denominations, and in ordering supplies endeavoured to estimate on the basis of the normal month’s sales, together with a reasonable excess to meet the possible demands of collectors, as it was recognized that a certain amount of interest is always taken in any new stamps issue. No official “first covers’" were prepared. It was evident, however, by the demand for first-day impressions at the special Congress Post Office that interest in the commerce stamps was exceptionally keen, and about 40,000 first-day impressions were handled, these covers in the mlajority of eases bearing full sets of stamps. This indicated a. very unusual demand for the higher values, and the extraordinary extent of it can be gauged by comparing the normal monthly stamp sales of those values with the numbers of Commerce stamps ordered for the special issue and rapidly sold out. Average monthly Commerce Sales. Stamps 2-Jd 30,000 357,696 4dl 560,000 3'64.896 6d 180,000 441.696 The Id and Id Commerce stamps are still on sale, and so much interest, has been taken in the whole series that the Post Office completes its statement of the numbers ordered by announcing that the total printed at ha t,pennies was 3,504,096 ami ol pennies 5,976,096.