Chalon Reprints, Presentation Sets & Reproductions
Official Reprints 1884
Reprints are defined as stamps printed in the correct colour from the original plate after a stamp has been withdrawn from sale at Post Offices. There have only been three values of the New Zealand Chalon issue, which have been reprinted in their original colours:
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1d Orange,
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2d Blue, and
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6d Brown
These stamps cannot be matched exactly by any of the perforated issues of 1864 – 71, but the
shades can be found among duty stamps of the issue of 1882. The 1d was printed in pale
orange of a tone brighter than that of the 1871 printing. The plate was in a much worn state.
The 2d colour was a dullish blue and the 6d colour was a dull brown approaching chocolate,
the plate shows evidence of wear.
When the 1st Sideface Issue was introduced in 1874 and then the 2nd Sideface Issue in 1882, the
Chalon Head stamps were still sold as they were valid for postage until 1913. In 1884 the
Secretary of Post and Telegraph Department Mr. W. Gray gave instructions that the obsolete
issues should be returned to Head Office. All the stamps returned were written off and
destroyed.
However it had been the practice to retain a few sheets of each issue so that presentation and
exhibition sets might be made up and, though there were supplies of the 1d brown, 2d
vermilion, 3d slate-lilac, 4d yellow-orange, 6d blue and 1s 0d pale yellow-green of the Chalon
Head printings, after the returned stamps had been destroyed there were no copies of the 1d,
2d and 6d values in the earlier colours. Mr. Gray issued instructions that sufficient numbers of
sheets of these values should be printed to meet possible requirements for the special purposes
for which the stamps were needed.
The star watermark paper used was comparatively thin and rough in texture, it was obtained
from the Colonial Secretary’s Office and the printing carried out by John Davies. The sheets of
printed stamps were not perforated or gummed.
Presentation Sets
Stamps presented by the New Zealand Post Office were in most cases either cancelled by
various means before being presented. When New Zealand joined the Universal Postal Union
in 1891 one of the requirements was to supply sets of the stamps valid for postage to the
Union for distribution to the member countries Post Offices.
Even though the Chalon issues had been replaced by two separate stamp series they were still
valid for postage and as such would have been included in the sets. It is known that the British
Post Office and possibly a number of the Post Office’s of other countries over printed the sets
supplied with the word ‘Specimen’ or the equivalent in their own language.
In addition to the sets of stamps made available to the Universal Postal Union it was the
practice of the New Zealand Post Office to present sets to V.I.P’s, Parliamentarians and Senior
Government Officials. The method used to cancel or otherwise invalidate these sets could take
any one of three methods:
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Overprint with the word ‘SPECIMEN’ – from about 1882 to about 1895
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Overprint with a segment or full impression of a circular date stamp – from about 1888 to about 1903.
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Overprint with three or four short parallel lines, across the bottom corner– from about 1898 to about 1913.
Type A
Serif Caps
14 1/2 x 2 1/4
Type B
Sans-serif
15 x 1 3/4
Type C
Sans -serif
11 x 1
1864 - 1871 3d Lilac
Perf 12 1/2 - Large Star wmk
Type A Horizontal Serif Caps
14 1/2 x 2 1/4mm
1871 1/- Yellow-green
Perf 12 1/2 - Large Star wmk
Type A Horizontal Serif Caps
14 1/2 x 2 1/4mm
1873 4d Orange-yellow
Perf 12 1/2 - no wmk
Type A Vertical Serif Caps
14 1/2 x 2 1/4mm
Parallel Lines
Invalidation of some of the Chalon Head stamps that were included in Presentation Sets
during the period from about 1898 to 1915 was to apply three or four short parallel lines
across either of the lower corners of a stamp
1864 - 1871 3d Deep Mauve
Perf 12 1/2 - Large Star wmk
Presentation diagonal lines
1864 - 1871 1/- Yellow-green
Perf 12 1/2 - Large Star wmk
Presentation diagonal lines
1871 - 73 1d Brown
Perf 12 1/2 - Large Star wmk
Presentation diagonal lines
1871 - 73 2d Vermilion
Perf 12 1/2 - Large Star wmk
Presentation diagonal lines
1871 - 73 6d Blue
Perf 12 1/2 - Large Star wmk
Presentation diagonal lines
1873 4d Bright orange-yellow
Perf 12 1/2 - No watermark
Partial THSAUNDERS watermark 'NU" Inverted
Presentation diagonal lines
Hausberg Reprints
Hausberg Prints
1905
2d Black
Mr. Leslie L.R. Hausburg visited New Zealand in February 1905 and following discussion with the New Zealand postal authorities in Wellington inspected the material in their archives. With the intention of the Royal Philatelic Society London to publish a book dealing with the early issues of Australasia, he requested on behalf of the RPSL 1000 prints of the 2d plate II in black for inclusion in this publication. Mr. Hausburg agreed to pay the cost of the work and to supply the necessary paper, his application was approved.
The supply of paper which was selected by Mr. J.M. Heath of Messrs Perkins, Bacon and Co., was white wove without watermark, it was sent out to New Zealand with the request for sufficient numbers of black prints from the other plates to enable them to be studied.
In April 1906 the New Zealand Government Printer ran off 1,020 sheets from the 2d plate II and 26 sheets each from the 1d, 3d, 4d, 6d and 1s 0d plates. In August of the same year 26 sheets were also printed from the 2d plate I.
1,000 sheets of the 2d plate II and six sheets from each of the other plates were sent to Mr. Hausburg, and the Postal Department retained 20 sheets from each plate. The sheets from the 2d plate II were never used for the purpose that they were obtained.
Of the sheets kept by the Postal Department, one of each was placed in the Reference Collection in the G.P.O Wellington; the others were destroyed in 1936. This means that hthere are only 7 sheets of each apart from the 2d plate II in existence of which one of each is kept with the NZ Post Collection now residing in TePapa and six others that were sent to Mr Hausberg. In the subsequent years since the sheets were sent to England a number of examples from the printings have found their way onto the philatelic market, but it is thought that no full sheets of the 6 sheets of the 'other' denominations have survived, whereas there are many known full sheets of the 2d plate II.
The Collection
'The Collection' is fortunate to have a complete sheet of the 2d Plate II (below - the scan is split because the sheet is so large but the sheet is intact), and large blocks of 60 of all the other Hausberg denominations except the 2d plate 1. The prints give a great reference when trying to plate stamps and you can also see the different spacing of the individual stamps and how hard it must have been to separate them, but especially the first three plates of 1d, 2d and 1/-.
There are also some bottom rows blocks of Hausbergs except the 1d shown below. The 1d plate did remarkably well to survive for so long. It produced the second most stamps behind the 2d plates.
Joliffe Reprints
1913 Jolliffe Reproductions
In 1913 the Philatelic Society of New Zealand (forerunner of the Royal Philatelic Society of New
Zealand) made a successful application for black prints from the 2d plate II for inclusion in the
Society’s publication, The History of New Zealand Stamps by William Jolliffe.
600 sheets were printed on a light cream-toned paper averaging 0.005in thick which had a
pronounced horizontal ribbing and portions from the retouched part of the plate were duly included
in the book, in two panes; Rows 14-20, stamps 1-6 and 7-12, plus an individual impression of
stamp No. 12 row 13 shown directly below.
End stamp (No. 12 0n 13th row, showing retouches.
