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Antipodean Heraldic Philately

One of my favourite series of stamps comes from New Zealand. In 1929, the New Zealand Post Office commissioned the Englishman H. L. Richardson, an artist and teacher at the Wellington Technical College, to design a series of fiscal revenue stamps, or duty stamps. The design employed the New Zealand coat of arms in a variety of colours depending on the value of the stamp. Richardson erroneously had the lion in the crest of the arms hold aloft a New Zealand flag instead of the Union Jack that he was supposed to carry. The crest was changed to a crown in 1956 (along with a series of other changes) to signify that New Zealand had by then become a sovereign realm of its own. Richardson’s stamps were withdrawn from use in 1967 when New Zealand’s currency was decimalised.

Published at 4:54 pm on Sunday 26 September 2010. Categories: Design Featured Heraldry Tags: , , , .
Comments

I almost got the title right- I had it down as “Australian stamps featuring heraldry”.

— K. Dontoh 27 Sep 2010 4:23 pm

Thank you for posting such a clear picture of the design. It actually continued to be used until 1987 on decimalised stamps.

— Gregor Macaulay 13 Oct 2010 12:20 am
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