NEW ZEALAND

The only stamp Czeslaw Slania has designed for New Zealand is extremely beauty. Note the Slania´s signature on the selvedge of the stamp.

18.02.1994.  Mount Cook and New Zealand symbols. Scott # 1084.

This is the largest and highest value stamp issued by New Zealand. Includes gold foil on watermarked phosphor-coated paper. This stamp is one of the most elaborate stamp issues ever produced by New Zealand Post and its production has been complex. The English Engraving Company, Komori, specialised in producing security documents and banknotes produced the printing plate. The stamps are printed by Leigh-Mardon Pty Ltd. in Melbourne, Australia, using a combination of the ultra high quality intaglio process and gold foil on specially watermarked and phosphor coated stamp paper for security.

Mount Cook is New Zealand’s highest mountain at 3700 meters and is also called Aorangi («The cloud piercer» in Maori).  

The design also shows the New Zealand flag, with the Union Jack in the upper left corner and the four stars of the Southern Cross to the right; flowers of the kowhai tree and the branch of a ponga tree-fern, both national symbols of New Zealand. Across the top of the stamp is a traditional design used by Maori on rafters, doors & windows.  As well as an elaborate watermark, the stamp has the New Zealand Post and their logo, printed on the face of the stamp as a security measure. These words are visible when the stamp is held obliquely to the light.

The stars on the New Zealand flag are not a “true” cross, they fall at the relative positions of the stars Acrux, Mimosa, Gacrux and delta Crucis, and as such the “crossbar” doesn’t intersect the upright at 90 degrees.