Railway Charge Stamps.

          Although not technically revenue stamps, the Railways Charges stamps were introduced in 1890 to facilitate prepaying of charges for the carrying of newspapers, parcels and freight by train. The stamps were issued as proof payment had been made.

          I first included these on my Trains of New Zealand page and at that time I thought I had found the entire sets but recently, I discovered there were actually a lot more. This separate post was created to tell the story behind these issues and display them to their best advantage. I have left some charge stamps on my trains page as examples but they are not full sets.

         Railway Charge Stamps can be classified into two time periods. From 1890 - 1921 then from until they were discontinued. After 1925 the second series was usually overprinted with the station name in an attempt to prevent forgery. A third series was designed in 1904 but never issued.

         The 1890 stamps were issued for three separate purposes although they were commonly interchanged as required. The later 1921 series was a general "all purpose" series used for smaller railways charges.

1890 Railway Newspaper Stamps.
           In a time when the fastest and most reliable form of transport in New Zealand was the train, The Railways carried newspapers to smaller towns and local stations. A set of special stamps were produced especially for this purpose. These stamps were a simple design depicting the royal crown surrounded by the required text, such as value, purpose, issuer, etc. Notice that the cancel on some has done using a crayon. This is normal and does not subtract from the value of the stamp

 

  ½d Black.                                     1d Violet.

   

2d Blue.                                        3d Brown.                                   3d Yellow.

 

4d Rose.                                 6d Green.

Since the paper used was of a poor quality and many had poor perforations it is unusual to find such a perfect set as can be seen above. Often the rare 3d brown will be missing too. Below is a full set that in 2016 was being offered by a stamp dealer for $400 NZ.

One of the biggest problems with these stamps was the perforations.

 

The two blocks above are good examples of perforation problems of this issue. In the ½d block to the left the vertical perf cuts into the design of the stamps. Also notice the bottom left-hand stamp has a deformed "F". The right-hand  1d block shows the perforations have not punched through which will tend to lead to tearing of the stamp as can be seen in the examples below.

Examples of tearing caused by poor perforations.

     

       

1890 Railway Parcel Stamps.

          Small parcels were also carried by rail. The two stamps below were especially issued for this purpose. The design of these stamps was similar except the crown was replaced with a coat-of arms.

  

3d Black.                                      6d Green. 

1890 Railway Freight Stamps.

          When larger items were carried by rail they came under the description of "Freight." Another two larger values were issued for this purpose. These stamps were the same as the parcel stamps above except the word "Parcel" was replaced the word "Freight."

                     

1/- Blue.                                                           5/- Red.

          While these three sets of stamps were each designed for a particular purpose, it was not uncommon to see them used together to make up the required charge for an item being carried. For example if a parcel cost 8d, a 6d Green parcel, and a 2d Blue newspaper could be used. This interchanging of stamps eventually led to a general set of Railway Charge Stamps being produced to cover all railway changes.

1904 Railway Parcel Stamps - Essays.

                               (Trials Not Used)

         In 1904 New Zealand Railway authorities proposed a new set of railway parcel stamps. They were called Parcel Stamps but I believe the intention they would be an 'all purpose' series designed to cover all smaller Railway Charges. A full set of six values (½d, 1d, 2d, 3d, 6d, and 1/), each with a different design, was commissioned, and essays were printed in various colours. All six values and at least ten colours are shown below. I am unsure why they were never issued and why they all carried the word 'postage.' 

  

NZ Rail Essay - ½d Violet.                   NZ Rail Essay - 1d Blue.                              NZ Rail Essay - 1d Red.

 

NZ Rail Essay - 2d Brown.                           NZ Rail Essay - 2d Red. 

  

NZ Rail Essay - 3d Blue.                   NZ Rail Essay - 3d Orange.                    NZ Rail Essay - 3d Red.

  

 NZ Rail Essay - 6d Brown.                             NZ Rail Essay - 6d Red.                            NZ Rail Essay - 6d Violet.

  

NZ Rail Essay - 1s Green.                            NZ Rail Essay - 1s Pink.                            NZ Rail Essay - 1s Red.

 1921 Railway Charge Stamps
                          (Covering all charges).

        In 1921, the older 1890 sets above were replaced with this "general purpose" set of 13 values. These stamps were a taller portrait shape when compared with the older ones 1890 stamps. The value has been moved to appear boldly in the centre surrounded by the words, "N.Z.R. Railway Charges." The crown takes the centre-top position with a train design in each corner.

       The bulk of the set was printed in 1920 but not released until 1925. The 1d exists (as shown) both with and without "stop" ( period) under the "d". The ½d was issued in 1927, the 8d and 10/ in 1926. The reason for the 8d is interesting - to ship a bushel of fruit cost that amount and to spare the clerks having to use a 6d and a 2d they issued the 8d! The ½d was for newspapers only. As not many of the 8d, 5/- & 10/- were used they have become very rare now. 
       In a effort to prevent illegal use of these stamps they were over printed with the station name they were sold from. Anyone using these stamps at another station would need to provide a good reason why.
       This system of issuing railway charge stamps eventually ceased. As time went by, most smaller parcels were sent by NZ Post and larger items carried by railways would be invoiced in a normal manner. This meant railway charge stamps were no longer required and they were discontinued in 1959.

1/2d Black.

               

1d Violet. (No Stop)                                                      1d Violet.

 Notice the variety of this value on the left. The large full stop under the "D" is missing.

                

2d Blue.                                                    3d Yellow.                                                    6d Green.

                   

8d Yellow-Green.                                                          9d Red-Brown.

 Out of all these stamps the 8d, being only used to a single purpose, has become extremely rare.

  

1/- Brown.                                             1/6 Dark Blue.

                                          

2/- Pink.                                                                                            2/6 Grey. 

     

5/- Crimson.                                                10/- Plum.

The two highest values in this series were never as common and good examples are rarer than with other values in this set.

               

To interesting varieties of station overprints. I called these varieties because I'm not sure they could be called errors.

Left-hand - The station name appears three times on one stamp.

Right-hand - In this pair the station name is inverted, overprint top to the right then overprint top to the left.  

 1926 Railway Mail Tag for Fox Films Corporation, specially created for Rail Transport.

Sent from Wellington to New Plymouth, 1/- brown X 3, 5/- red Railway Charges on back with the address on the front.

 1928 Railway advertising Mail Tag New Zealand Express Company with 1/6 blue Railway charge tied on back, with a Palmerston North overprint.

There was another set of stamps regularly used on parcels carried by the Railways. These were the stamps of a private company New Zealand Express and have been included in their own post.

  

Some images on this page were sourced from web site of NZ Revenues.