Maori stamps released by mistake

An article appeared in yesterday's New Zealand Herald saying that the New Zealand Post has admitted that more than 500 of the withdrawn Maori stamps had been mistakenly released.

Apparently eight customers with standing orders had received the stamps which, according to the paper, are now worth hundreds of dollars apiece.

The stamps protraying the Maoris Indians as cartoon-like figures were to be released in May but were taken off sale because of public protests. New Zealand Post scrapped more than one million stamps depicting Maori performing arts after complaints that they were offensive to the country's 500,000 indigenous people.

New Zealand Stamp Collectors Club president and stamp dealer Steven McLachlan is quoted in the article as saying, "If somebody walked into my shop today with one of those stamps I would pay $500," said

"Anybody would be a fool to send them back. There is no way I would advise anyone to send them back." McLachlan said demand and the small number of stamps available could see prices rise to up to $2000 each.

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