New Zealand Post recently announced that it is selling the famous 4d Lake Taupo stamp that it has owned since 1998, when it purchased it for $125,000 to coincide with a centenary commemoration reprint of the 1898 Pictorial stamp issue. The unique specimen from the 1902-07 Pictorials collection (which reused designs from the 1898 Pictorials) was printed with an inverted centre. Although this error would have appeared across a full sheet of 80 stamps, only one has ever been found.

The stamp was used in 1904 on a letter sent from Picton. It wasn’t discovered until 1930, when an English collector came across it in his childhood collection.

The stamp has been on long term loan with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa since 2010.

The Taupo invert will be auctioned by Mowbray Collectables in Wellington on 20 September 2025 with an estimate of $250,000.

An enlarged print of the stamp was shown at the Upper Hutt Stamp Club on Monday 21 July at its monthly meeting held at Wesley Centre, Pioneer Room, Benzie Avenue, Upper Hutt, when Andrew McNiven spoke on NZ Post Office History.

The Upper Hutt Stamp Club is the latest club to join the growing list of community clubs and societies who wish to use the Upper Hutt Connection to advertise their events.

The club meets monthly, other than January. For further details (https://sites.google.com/site/upperhuttstampclub/home)

A “thank you” to Andrew from Upper Hutt Stamp Club for sending this article to The Upper Hutt Connection.

18/07/25