New Zealand - 1901 Zealandia Error - Perforations in the middle of the stamp

[sin-n-dex]

Hi Everyone,

I have this Zealandia block of four that's perforated right in the middle of the stamp (and the stamps are crooked too).

Anyone know anything about this or what the perceived value might be? I can't find anything about this type of error online, hoping someone here might know.

Thanks, C.

[annadryl]

As it's already a substantial misalignment misperf, it's the perfs that are crooked and not the stamp. Major mishap there, definitely cool! I don't have my reference stuff here, but I would find the catalog number and do a general search from there.

Since this is only a block there are more out there and maybe another example could be found for a reference. That said, errors don't usually have a catalog value, as that is up to the market and those looking for them. Good luck!

[sin-n-dex]

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@annadryl wrote:

As it's already a substantial misalignment misperf, it's the perfs that are crooked and not the stamp. Major mishap there, definitely cool! I don't have my reference stuff here, but I would find the catalog number and do a general search from there.

Since this is only a block there are more out there and maybe another example could be found for a reference. That said, errors don't usually have a catalog value, as that is up to the market and those looking for them. Good luck!

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Unfortunately I use Stampworld website for stamp lookup, but they have assigned their own catalog numbers and don't use anyone else's (I assume that's a copyright thing). I looked into getting a catalog, but paper copies are big and take up lots of space. They also cost a whole lot. I'm sure there are other resources where I can find the catalog number though.

Anyway sounds like I need to just run an auction with my lowest price as the minimum bid and just see what happens.

Thanks for your input!

C.

[annadryl]

I needed to dig out my books anyway... Looks to be Scott # 131. I'd certainly include that with the listing. Good luck~

[sin-n-dex]

Thanks for the reference.

How do you know it's 1909 and not the 1901 issue? I looked at stampworld and seems there's quite a few issues of these, but I can't tell them apart.

The owner of this collection labelled most of his stamps with the date of issue to help identify, but the block was kind of isolated without any reference. Just don't want to be wrong on the year when I list.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

Thanks for the reference.

How do you know it's 1909 and not the 1901 issue? I looked at stampworld and seems there's quite a few issues of these, but I can't tell them apart.

The owner of this collection labelled most of his stamps with the date of issue to help identify, but the block was kind of isolated without any reference. Just don't want to be wrong on the year when I list.

C.

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I just realized.... it says "Dominion of New Zealand" on my stamp.

OK, that's how you knew. 🙂

C.

[annadryl]

The earlier issue looks to be the same basic design but doesn't say "Dominion". Searching here, there are a couple overprint varieties as well, but I think yours is a regular issue 131 (1909).

[annadryl]

Looking around I see that there are a few wrong-perf and imperf errors out there so definitely check if it's 14 x 14.5 as advertised. A double error is a long shot but would be awesome! I didn't see any miscuts as drastic as yours. But someone was asleep on the job! 😔

[billsey]

I used to have bookmarks pointing to the excellent pages Rolly Runciman (?) did on the Penny Universal and Penny Dominion issues. I can't find them now, and since it's been many years since I last worked on NZ I'm not surprised. Note that the Penny Dominion wasn't just issued in the 1909 version. In addition to the earlier printings there were at least these:

• June 1924: Jones chalk surfaced paper; also issued overprinted Official in 1925,
• April 1925: small numbers on unsurfaced De La Rue paper and surfaced paper with sideways watermark,
• July 1925: unwatermarked paper in which a lithographed ''watermark'' was printed; also issued overprinted Official in 1925,
• August 1925: Cowan thick chalky paper; also issued overprinted Official in 1925,
• 1926: Cowan thick chalky paper surfaced on the wrong side and so the stamps were issued with reversed watermark; also issued overprinted Official in 1926,
• June 1926: dull carmine on Wiggins Teape paper with vertical mesh. Stamps from the top row were blurred.

I believe I have examples from each of those paper types... Scott only seems to list the July 1925 variety.