100 years on, NZ Post commemorates the Spirit of Anzac

100 years on, NZ Post commemorates the Spirit of Anzac with flag, coins and stamps

Special issue stamps and coins commemorating the Spirit of Anzac will go on sale today.

New Zealand Post will also, for the first time, fly an Anzac flag at its headquarters in Wellington.

Through the stamps, coins and flag, New Zealand Post is paying tribute to the Gallipoli Anzac campaign, whose centenary will be officially marked on Anzac Day, 25 April 2015. More than 2700 New Zealanders and 8700 Australians died in the campaign.

New Zealand Post also has a special interest in honouring the First World War in memory of those from its predecessor organisation the Post and Telegraph (P&T) Department who answered the call to defend country, King and Empire. Of the 3000 P&T staff who joined up, many served in Gallipoli. In all, 234 lost their lives in the War.

Today:

• Stamp and coins in a special 1915 Spirit of Anzac programme go on sale. The programme is the second in a series of five issues over five years commemorating the First World War.

• New Zealand’s first ever commemorative coloured legal tender 50 cent coin will go on sale to the public through PostShop and Kiwibank branches nationwide.

• A specially-designed Anzac flag, measuring 6 metres by 3 metres, will fly underneath the New Zealand flag from the main flagpole at the Whitmore St end of New Zealand Post House from today till the end of April.

Weather permitting tomorrow, a banner measuring 30 metres by 16 metres, portraying renowned image of Gallipoli ‘The Sapper and his Donkey’, will be put up on the Whitmore St side of New Zealand Post House.

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