I am sometimes asked why I collect New Zealand stamps. A major reason is the four classic definitive issues: the Chalon Heads, the first pictorials, the GV recess printed and the second pictorials.
London prints, 1898
The first pictorials were issued more than one hundred years ago when to issue pictorial definitive stamps rather than the monarch's head was unusual.
The London prints
The plates were engraved by Waterlow and the first printings were by them in London. The stamps were printed on paper with no watermark and issued in New Zealand on 5 April, 1898. Various perforating machines were used and the stamps are usually described as being Perf 12 to 16, a very strange state of affairs.
Wakitipu - Wakatipu error
The 2½d value depicts a lake that was incorrectly spelled Wakitipu instead of Wakatipu. A new plate with the correct spelling was engraved and the stamps issued on 5 May 1898. However, further stamps were printed from the original plate and, due to speculative buying, the error is more common than the correct spelling.
Wrong and corrected spelling of Wakatipu
Plate problems and resulting changes
There were several practical problems with the London plates. The smaller stamps were of a non-standard size and were larger than had been expected. Because of their size, the commonly used ½d and the 2d values were in plates with only 120 impressions while the 1d was even worse as it was issued in two colours and there were only 80 impressions on each plate. The previous 1d stamp was in a single colour with 240 impressions on each plate and therefore could be produced much more cheaply and quickly.
To deal with demand, the ½d, 1d and 2d values from the second side-face definitives remained in use along with the new set. As that could not continue indefinitely, it was decided that the design for the 1d and 4d values would be interchanged and that the ½d, 1d and 2d values would be reduced in size and printed from plates with 240 impressions.
It was also decided to transfer the printing of the stamps to New Zealand.
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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.