Core New Zealand

Over a fairly short period, through bidding in and winning several online auctions  on Trade Me of bulk lots, I accumulated a good number of New Zealand stamps. Mostly the stamps are older - at least half are pre-decimal currency (New Zealand changed from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents in 1967 . . . when I was already collecting as a ten-year-old.

To maximize my 'exchange index' I've done a stock take to identify a basic set of about 50 stamps that form the core of my NZ stamp packets. This is the bunch that I'd like to discuss in this post.

Although the above stamps just happen to be the ones I have the duplicates of, they are an interesting bunch in a number of ways:

1. They feature 3 generations of British rulers: George V, George VI and Elizabeth II
2. They feature stamps from the 1960 and 1967 definites that straddle the year 1967 when NZ changed its currency
3. They feature two European 'discoverers' of NZ: Abel Tasman and James Cook
4. There's a Christmas stamps (issued annually since 1960)
5. There are Health stamps (issued annually from about 1929)
6. They feature two maps of the country (3 if you count the Captain Cook stamp)
7. They show the University of Otago where I got my degree
8. They show two of our national sports: Cricket and Rugby
9. One commemorates giving women the vote (the first country in the world to do so)
10. One shows Mitre Peak which you'll see if you walk the world-famous Milford Track
11. The orange stamp shows a Maori dwelling, another shows the bible written in the Maori language
12. Two of the stamps demonstrate NZ's keen involvement with the Olympic Games
    
13. Several of the King George VI definite stamps highlight that there was a lot of fiddling around with colour and face value. 

Stamp Paradise

In March, 2010, I stumbled across the site Stamp Paradise. It allows stamp collectors to connect online and agree to exchange stamps 50, 100 or more at a time.

I recently resumed the hobby of stamps collecting. I'd given it up as a teenager almost 40 years ago, but caught the germ of the bug at an exhibition the local stamp club set up in the middle of town. Then, at about the time of the birth of my youngest daughter Sachi six months ago, I got into the swing of it again via Trade Me. That and online chess - but that's another story (and maybe yet another blog).

On Stamp Paradise I placed a short ad (search for William Lucas). I had stamps to exchange from New Zealand and Japan, and was anybody interested? I turned out that there were - 50 to 60 people responded in just a few days.

My bright idea is to document this ongoing exchange process on a blog. Could be fun . . . if I can only keep up!