Great Barrier Pigeongram:
VP 8 - Agency 1/- Red
Great Barrier Pigeon Post
1898 - 1904
VP 8 - Agency 1/- Red
The detailed description of the coming about of this stamp is explained fully on the previous page which talks about the development of the 6d Blue. The 1/- Red was developed at the same time and was the stamp to be used to send flimsies to Great Barrier from Auckland. The stamps went on sale on 11 July 1899.
Having said that you'll find many flimsies with a double 6d instead of the 1/- Red and I'm not sure why - there were plenty of them. There were 5,000 1/- stamps printed in sheets of 10 - so 500 sheets - which makes it the second most produced Pigeon Post stamp behind the 10,000 of its colleague the 6d Blue. Only VP 4 can come close with 4,800 printed (remembering that 960 of them were then overprinted MAROTIRI).
'The Collection'
'The Collection' has numerous copies of the Agency 1/- Red. 'The Collection' has numerous mint, used on piece and used on complete flimsies, as shown below. Take a close look at the counterfeit below - the stamp is real but the postmark is bogus.
1899 1/- Red unused from plate position '10' with disturbance to bottom solid red area directly below the '1' of 1/
1899 1/- Red unused Plate position 9 with broken framelines left side near bottom.
1899 1/- Red unused Plate position 8 and 9 with broken framelines left side near bottom.
1899 1/- Red used dated 'FEB 16 01' and is plate position 5 with diagonal after 1 going right through solid red from one side to other. This date stamp is #2.
1899 1/- Red used undated and is plate position 10. This was the original #1 date stamp for the Agency, but the black ink indicates this was used from the Government House grounds for a Special Service on 15 DEC 1903. The origianl date stamp was only used for a few days and was impressed in purple.
1899 1/- Red used dated 'DEC 15 02' and is plate position 6 with dent in top of '1' and second 'R' of BARRIER having gap between horizontal and vertical and same with 'R' of GRAM.
1899 1/- Red used dated 'FEB 28 01'' and is plate position 10 with defect in frameline top left of apex, and a small defect in second down line of 'A' of Auckland.
What's wrong with this picture?
Actually it's the date stamp. This date stamp indicates 'JUN 12 99', but when one considers they first went on sale on 11 Jul 99 then we have a small problem!
Special Edition flimsy as part of a fundraiser for Veterans Home Funds. One is thinking that the fundraiser was for returning servicemen from the Boer War which had ended in 1902. There was no message written on the flimsy - just an address. The Governor himself supposedly released some of the birds and signed some of the flimsies - not this one unfortunately. The flimsy isn't in the greatest of condition, but better an ugly flimsy than no flimsy at all is good advice when collecting these.
Unused flimsy with 1/- red attached.