Postage dues

Postage Dues

1899 - 1900

The First Issue

The use of stamps to pay for postage became obligatory in 1862. Prior to this mail was sent and it was the norm that postage would be paid by the receiver or a combination of the receiver and the sender, and that only the amount owed for the postage was collected. The imposition of this approach on the Post Office was enormous and so in 1862 fines were introduced to reduce the number of letters being incorrectly paid for.

The method was however incredibly bureaucratic, whereby the sending Post Master had to make note of every address of a letter incorrectly paid for, and submit the details to the Central Post Office, who would then debit the value from the Post Master of the receiving Post Office. It was now up to that Post Master to collect to regain his debit!

Insufficient postage hand stamp indicating 3d more postage owed and a fine of same to match, a total of 6d owing as written by hand in black. Letter to Premier E.W. Stafford from Christchurch (with 'C' Killer obliterator) sent 2 Jan 68 and received in Wellington 4 Jan 68. **Cheeky note, it still takes the same amount of time for a letter to be sent and received these days! 😂

This approach required massive accounts and, because many of the postmasters were in smaller towns and were temporary workers, delays were unavoidable. In 1876 postmasters were instructed that:

"Unpatd postage (i.e., tcash due to the despatching office) must in every case be remitted by the Receiving Postmaster to the Despatching Postmaster at the same time that the Letter Bill is returned. The Despatching Postmaster on the receipt of the Letter Bill, should transfer the several entries and the surcharges made by him to the Return Letter Bill for the Chief Office and forward the Local Letter Bill as the voucher."

To be honest I almost feel guilty quoting that instruction as it took me a few days to understand it! 😅

In 1877 there were further changes made whereupon postage stamps as opposed to cash was used to remedy payment. Dockets were used and they had two parts - both parts had the details of the insufficiency recorded on them and then one part was sent to the central office for recording while the other was attached to the letter being sent to the Receiving Post Office. Upon receipt the Receiving Post Office would remove the docket from the letter, affix the stamps to the back, write or sign his name across the stamps (not postmark) and forward to central office who would cross account by referring to the first part they received from the sending Post Office.

This docket system was introduced on 1 April 1878 but it too was an onerous undertaking. An agent on the Auckland San Francisco mail steamer identified that between 15 to 20 bags of newspapers and 1,500 to 2,000 pieces of mail per trip were insufficiently paid and that a considerable amount of the mail agents time was taken processing this mail. Attention was drawn to the very simple process being used in the USA at the time of using Postage Due stamps. And so it was decreed that a Postage Due system would be implemented and would commence on 1 December 1899.

NZ Postage Stamps

1899

Postage Due Stamps

Because of the utilitarian nature of Postage Due stamps it wasn't considered necessary to spend too much money on the design or production of them. The Government Printer was tasked with preparing a simple design and so a simple generic design using brass ruling, curved ornamental lining, dot lining, corner ornaments and plain type letters was designed and was to be common to all values.

(a) 1840 1d Black on piece - SG 1

After a supply of the 1/2d value had been printed they went to be perforated and it was discovered that the spaces between the stamps were not wide enough to allow existing perforating machines to do an effective job.

Additionally a supply of De La Rue paper with the NZ Star watermark had been obtained for the stamps and it was found that the design creeped across the sheet eventually creating a major misalignment with the watermark and the stamps. A new narrower plate was designed and manufactured, but the first plate was not destroyed. Such was the timeframe that both plates were to be used to meet it. Thus the high volume lower values were printed by the 'new' plate (Type II) while the higher less volume required higher values were printed by the 'old' plate (Type I).

The differences between the plates are identified below:

Type I

Horizontal measurement 18 3/4 mm
N.Z. large
Inner circle has 14 ornaments
17 dots over N.Z.
Last arc on right opens inwards
Circle 16 1/2 mm in diameter
24 dots over POSTAGE DUE
Inner frame line at top broken
OS of POSTAGE spaced

Type II

Horizontal measurement 17 3/4 mm
N.Z. small
Inner circle has 13 ornaments
15 dots over N.Z.
Last arc on right opens outwards
Circle 15 1/2 mm in diameter
22 dots over POSTAGE DUE
Inner frame line at top continuous
OS of POSTAGE close

Postage Dues 1899

Below are three presentations of the three Postage Due sets issued. All presentations focus firstly on the stamps issued and then on the use of those stamps on mail. Enjoy!

Presentation of 1899 Postage Dues

Postage Dues 1902

In March 1900 the Government Printer was asked what the cost would be to prepare wooden blocks with a new design similar to that of the State of Victoria, from which electros could be made. Also in March Mr. W.R. Block submitted two designs based on the Victorian design. One was selected in April and the dies were made for the same range of values as the 1899 issue. Four groups of 60 electros in ten rows of six were produced so sheets of 240 stamps could be printed.

Whilst the stereos were cast only three values were used, the higher volume 1/2d, 1d and 2d. The original issue continued to be used until stocks would run out.

1/2d, 1d, and 2d were initially printed on Cowan unsurfaced paper, wmk NZ and Star (sideways), perf 11, dull green and carmine.

Another paper used was the De La Rue chalk surfaced paper with upright wmk and a 14 x 15 perf. While Carmine was used as a colour so was pink as shown. There were a few different papers used with a combination of perfs and these are shown in the presentation below.

The 3d was not printed until 1928! 26 years after the first three stamps of the issue. The higher values prepared were never printed and the higher values of the 1899 issue were withdrawn from Post Offices in 1916.

Postage Dues 1939

By 1936 the elctro plates manufactured back in 1902 were starting to show signs of wear and rather remake new plates of the same design it was decided that it was time for something fresh. Mr J. Berry was commissioned to produce a design which he did, and then these were sent to the Government Printer to produce a line block, which he subsequently did. He shipped it off but when he received a reminder for the job it was realised that the original block had been misplaced. He did the work again for the 2d and submitted his work with drawings from the designer. There was some tooing and froing on size and colour but eventually it was agreed, and plates of 120 were manufactured. Four values were made and they were the 1/2d blue-green, 1d deep-carmine pink, 2d bright blue and 3d orange-brown.

Printed in August 1939 on Wiggins Teape chalk surfaced paper and perforated 15 x 14 on a comb machine.

Presentation of 1939 Postage Due Stamps

Postage Due Post 1951

The use of Postage Due stamps was discontinued in 1951. Thereafter definitive stamps were used instead and the "deficient postage" hand stamps were also discontinued, at least in their previous format. In the years that followed various hand stamps were used to help identify deficient postage as well as pre-printed labels that were stuck to offending mail items.

Side Note - How to Make Electros

In the early 1900s, electrotyping was a common method for making metal printing plates from wooden blocks. The process involved several key steps:

1. Preparing the Wooden Block

A wood engraving was created by a skilled craftsman using fine-grain wood (often boxwood) to carve a detailed relief image.
The surface was smoothed and inked for a proof to check the quality of the engraving.

2. Creating the Electrotyping Mold

The wooden block was lightly dusted with graphite or black lead to make it conductive.
Alternatively, a thin layer of wax or gutta-percha was pressed onto the engraving to create a mould.
This mould was then coated with a fine layer of powdered graphite to allow electrical conductivity.

3. Electroplating the Mould

The graphite-coated mould was placed in an electrolytic bath containing a metal solution, usually copper sulphate.
The mould was connected to a cathode, while a copper plate served as the anode.
When an electric current was applied, a thin copper shell slowly built up on the mould, replicating the details of the wooden engraving.

4. Backing the Copper Plate

Once the copper shell was thick enough (usually 0.1–0.2 mm), it was carefully removed from the mould.
To make it strong enough for printing, the thin copper plate was reinforced with a layer of molten lead or type metal.
The reinforced electrotype was then mounted on a wooden or metal block to match the height of standard type for printing.

5. Printing with the Electrotype

The final electrotype could be inked and printed like a traditional relief block.
This method allowed for mass reproduction of the original engraving without wearing out the delicate wooden block.

Advantages of Electrotyping Over Direct Woodblock Printing

Durability: Metal plates lasted much longer than wooden engravings.
Reproducibility: Multiple copies could be made from the same mould.
Fine Detail: The process captured the intricate details of wood engravings with high precision.

By the early 20th century, electrotyping was widely used for printing illustrations, newspaper graphics, and stamps, making it a crucial part of industrial printing.

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