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A first down
under?
While many reports have suggested the
‘emergency’ stamps produced in January
are the first to be issued by Australia Post,
dealer Rod Perry recalls a similar ‘emergency’
stamp issue in late 1965: ‘At a time when
the Note Printing Branch presses were fully
committed to printing a series of definitive
stamps to coincide with the introduction of
Decimal currency, on 14 February, 1966,
it was determined that the then current
photogravure 2/6d Scarlet Robin was in
short supply, and would be exhausted
before the Decimal stamp replacement
(25c denomination in the same design)
was issued. To address the shortage, a new
“emergency” printing of the former 2/6d
recess-printed Aboriginal portrait was
released in October 1965 (SG 253ba).’Sets of Australian 30c ‘emergency’ stamps,
issued during a recent shortage prompted
by a price rise, are selling for hundreds of
pounds on the internet.
The emergency stamps were produced
in Adelaide following the rise in ‘standard
letter’ domestic postage rates from 70c to $
in January. With a shortage of 30c stamps
to make up the new rate, the Adelaide GPO
printed emergency stamps featuring the value
and the text ‘Adelaide 2016’ using a Counter
Printed Stamp (CPS) printing machine said
to be more than twenty years old.
An Australia Post spokesperson told us:
‘Prior to the Basic Postage Rate increase,
and currently, customers have been able
to purchase 30 cent stamps to use in
conjunction with existing 70 cent stamps
to send a regular letter in Australia. This
follows an increase to the Basic Postage
Rate in January 2016 from 70 cents to
$1. A small number of Post Offices in
Adelaide sold what is known as “counter
printed stamps” which were printed locally
to meet customer demand in the first few
days of the new price coming into effect.The standard 30 cent stamp, featuring a
crocodile as the image, continues to be
available across Australia.’
The stamps, which depict photographs
of kangaroos and koala bears, are thought
to have been on sale in selected post
offices across the state for no more than
three days, making them very rare. ‘This
emergency printing stock was distributed
to a small number of outlets in and around
Adelaide late on January 5, and the first
day of cancelling of posted mail bearing
the stamp took place the following day,’
Australian stamp dealer Rodney Perry said.
‘By 8 January, stock of the regular issue 30c
stamp had been replenished, and no further
printings of the CPS emergency stamps
were produced. The initiative to print the
emergency stamps was a practical decision,
purely to satisfy demand for essential
postal purposes, and was both innovative
and justified. Were it not for the chance
encounter by a philatelist on 18 January,
it is likely that the principal source of this
stamp issue would have been those stamps
used in the normal course of postal service.’
Now the stamps are selling for high
prices on the internet. A set of six of the
30c stamps sold for A$1,651 (approximately
£800) after 49 bids on eBay recently, while
a single value featuring a photograph of two
kangaroos sold for A$118 (£57). According to
Rod Perry around 12,000 stamps have been
produced, or 2,000 sets of six design units.
‘This estimate is based upon fifteen Adelaide
vicinity post offices receiving between 500and 1,000 stamps each,’ he told us.
‘No significant stock of mint were
acquired by any one individual,’ Rod
explained, ‘and the source of most offered
on eBay have come from the general public
who, once alerted to the importance of
the stamps by a proactive national media,
refrained from using their handful of
stamps purchased for postal purposes. That
source will quickly be exhausted. Postally
used are proving much more elusive than
mint, and commercially used covers are
extremely elusive. Greatest demand is for 6
to 8 January dates, after which the regular
30c stamp issue dominated usage. A small
number of contrived covers were prepared
by collectors who acquired mint stamps
after the 18 January announcement of the
existence of the emergency issue.
‘Demand for the emergency stamps will
accelerate dramatically if Stanley Gibbons
recognise the issue, particularly if that
recognition does not merely relegate it to
a sub number of the 1994 first issue of
the CPS, but rather places it in year 2016,
where it rightly ought to repose.’
The news has attracted interest from
both philatelists and the national press in
Australia, with newspapers such as The
Sydney Morning Herald reporting on the
story. Australia Post shared news stories about
the emergency stamps on their own social
media pages, but have rejected calls to print
more of the stamps or sell related collectables
such as first day covers, insisting they were
‘retail’ rather than a ‘philatelic’ products.Australian ‘emergency stamps’
become modern rarity
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