Today in History

1855 NZ's first postage stamps go on sale

These adhesive, non-perforated stamps for the prepayment of postage were the famous 'Chalon Head' design that portrayed a full-face likeness of Queen Victoria in her coronation robes.

New Zealand issued postal stamps 15 years after they first appeared in Britain. There were three stamps in the Full Face Queen set. They cost 1 penny (1d), 2 penny (2d) and 1 shilling (1s), and were printed in Britain. Other values were added to the set later.

The first stamp that was designed in New Zealand was a half-penny stamp issued on 1 January 1873. This had a side view of Queen Victoria's head and was known as the 'Newspaper' stamp because it was used to pay for newspapers being sent through the post.

New Zealand has long been a trendsetter in stamps. In 1893 we became the first country in the world to put advertising on the back of stamps. (The Post Office didn't issue these stamps for long, though, as people thought that licking the ink was unhealthy.) In April 1898 New Zealand was one of the first countries in the world to put pictures of the countryside, birds, and animals on its stamps.

New Zealand was also one of the first countries to introduce a 'penny universal' stamp. The idea of the penny universal was that all countries would charge a standard amount for postage. This would make it easier to send letters from one country to another. New Zealand's penny universal stamp was issued on New Year's Day 1900; Post Offices opened specially for one hour to sell the penny universal. A number of other countries soon adopted the idea. A notable exception was Australia, which threatened to return any letters carrying only the penny stamp.

Image: New Zealand's first stamps (NZ Post) 

1884 Death of Ferdinand von Hochstetter

The Austrian-born geologist von Hochstetter was the first to describe and interpret many features of New Zealand geology. He established a tradition of systematic geological mapping.

Image: Ferdinand von Hochstetter (DNZB)