Going under the hammer for the first time in New Zealand is a unique and bizarre error coin from 1965 with the tiki of a New Zealand Halfpenny on one side and Queen Elizabeth II on the other side, with the inscription in Latin instead of English. 

The mint used the British die by mistake.

“It’s a mystery how it was produced, but it’s the only one ever seen and estimates at $8,000, nearly 2 million times its halfpenny face value," says Mowbray Collectables Auctioneer David Galt.

Mowbray Collectables will hold the auctions in Wellington on September 22 and 23.

Set of six 1935 Proof NZ coins with Waitangi handshake Crown piece. Photo: Supplied.

Other such errors, known as mules, also in the auction, are a New Zealand Twenty Cents of 1975 on a Hong Kong scallop shaped coin and a Canadian Dollar paired with a New Zealand Fifty Cents from 1985. 

Coin and stamp collecting continue to attract strong interest with the auctions having estimates of over $1.25 million. 

“Interest springs from the history and rarity of items amongst the 1363 lots on offer," says David.

David Galt. Photo: Supplied.

Top estimate of $18,000 is for a set of 6 NZ coins from 1935 with a Crown depicting William Hobson and Chief Tamati Waka Nene at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. 

 The stamp auction has the biggest ever offering of over 4,000 of New Zealand’s earliest stamps, known as “Full Face Queens”, with a portrait of the young Queen Victoria. 

1831 earliest recorded incoming missionary letter to New Zealand. Photo: Supplied.

Historic documents abound

An 1831 letter, estimate $1,350, from Samuel Marsden’s Church Missionary Society, is said to be the earliest recorded incoming letter to New Zealand in private hands. Samuel Marsden was the first missionary to New Zealand in 1814.

Other early documents include a letter from William Hutt after whom the Hutt River was named from 1835; an 1840 document in Māori by Missionary William Williams; and correspondence with the Wakefields about the New Zealand Wars and gold rushes of the 1860s.