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Stamp collectors throughout Europe will soon be adding a Kiwi flavour to their collections with the largest ever shipment of stamps to leave New Zealand shores.
Eleven and a half million stamps collected over several years will be shipped to Britain this week by Otaki stamp dealers Mowbrays.
The shipment weighs a tonne and includes about 160 different stamp issues.
"We start off with the Penny Kiwi from 1935, then George the Sixth stamps, Queen Elizabeth stamps and 1960s pictorials, and so on until about 1995, including health stamps," said managing director John Mowbray. "They are not scarce stamps but there is a just huge quantity of them."
The stamps have been bought by English dealer Apex, which sells to British and European collectors.
"It will be a huge promotional tool for New Zealand stamps. It's aimed at people who aren't necessarily serious collectors at this point in time. We hope that quite a few collectors of New Zealand stamps will come our way in the future as a result of this."
Mr Mowbray said a confidentiality agreement prevented him disclosing the total value of the 11.5 million stamps. The stamps have all been "soaked off" envelopes.
"In the past church groups used to raise money and charities, by collecting and saving these stamps in offices, and they would soak these stamps off and count them out and sell them to dealers. This is the last remaining bulk stock of this type."
Mr Mowbray said although stamp use was diminishing with the advent of email and text messaging, the hobby of stamp collecting was "booming".
"Because we have got a lot of people approaching retirement age who are looking for a leisure hobby. Not everybody wants to windsurf at 60."
