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Two pence

The 2d was first issued on 1 May 1935. Apart from the Blitz perfs, all issues were perforated 14x13½.

single

Single-watermarked paper

The first issue was on single watermarked paper. All plates had 480 impressions in two panes of 240 with the issued sheets having 240 stamps in 10 rows of 24. Stamps on single watermarked paper were from panes numbered: 1A and 1B.

Multi-watermarked paper

plate 3b

Stamps on multiple watermarked paper were issued in March 1936 on sheets with pane numbers 1A and 1B. Stamps from sheets with pane numbers 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B were issued in October 1938 while sheets with pane numbers 4A and 4B were issued in October 1941.

With the exception of 3A and 3B, the pane numbers were under the second stamp in the bottom row.

All these stamps were printed on fine paper.

Blitz perforations

In December 1940, De La Rue's printing works were badly damaged. Unlike some other values, the 2d value continued to be printed by De La Rue, but sheets were sent to other firms for perforation.

Coarse paper

From January 1942, the stamps were issued on coarse paper. The pane numbers were 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A and 4B.

In April 1943, stamps were issed from plate 5. Initially, both panes were numbered 5, but in May 1943 stamps were issued with the two panes distinguished by the letters A and B being scratched on the plate.

5 5A 5B

The 2d was replaced by the George VI definitive in 1947.


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The above information is taken from The Postage Stamps of New Zealand Vol 1, 2 and 4 published by the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand in 1938, 1950 and 1964. All scans were made by the author.