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New Colours 1871

The colours of the 1d, 2d and 6d were changed in 1871 with the new stamps being issued on July 1. The paper had the large star watermark.

The 1d was changed to brown, the 2d to orange and the 6d to blue. The 1d plate was very worn by this stage.

Initial perforations
1d P10

1d Perf 10

1d P10_12half

1d Perf 10x12½

2d orange

2d Perf 10x12½

6d blue

6d Perf 10x12½


The 1d was initially perf 10. All three were then issued perf 10x12½ although the 6d is relatively scarce in this perforation.

Perf 12½

They were then issued perf 12½ and that is the commonest perforation. Examples are shown below.

1d late 2d orange 6d blue

Changed paper
2d NZ

2d on NZ paper

Supplies of the star watermarked paper ran out in 1872. New supplies had not been ordered as the Chalon heads were about to be replaced by the first side-face issue. However, the plates for that issue were late in being delivered and so the Chalon heads remained in use longer than expected.

The first provisional paper used by Davies was the NZ watermarked paper previously used in 1864 (mostly for the 2d, although a few for the 1d) and when that was used up several local unwatermarked papers were used for the 1d and 2d.

There was also a printing of the 4d yellow on unwatermarked paper.

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