Revenue stamps of New Zealand  New Zealand first issued revenue stamps on 1 January 1867 and their general use continued until the early 1950s. The only Revenue Stamp series still in use today is the Game Bird Habitat stamp which is used for payment of the Gun License for the duck shooting season which begins the first weekend of May. There were various types of fiscal stamps for different taxes. New Zealand's first revenues were imperforate long designs portraying Queen Victoria and inscribed STAMP DUTY NEW ZEALAND. This series was issued on 1 January 1867, however some copies are known used in December 1866. In all, the first set consisted of seventy eight stamps with denominations ranging from 1d to £10. In May 1867, these stamps were reissued perforated 12½, and this time more values were added up to £50. Various changes in the perforation and watermark were also issued around this time. These were replaced by stamps printed by a new die in 1871, with minor differences in the design. On 15 June 1878, a penny lilac revenue stamp was issued in a design based on that of British revenues. On 14 December 1878, this was replaced by a similar stamp in the same design but in blue. In 1880, a new design, also portraying Queen Victoria, was issued. These remained in use for over fifty years, and therefore many printings exist with different perforations, watermarks and papers. Many different denominations were issued ranging from 4d to £1000. From 1 April 1882 these became valid for postal use, and postally used copies generally command higher prices than fiscally used ones. Around 1884, the 1867 imperforate design was reissued in gold, and it was individually printed with the required value at a particular point in time. Government records indicate that the lowest value ordered was £389, and the highest £190,225. In 1931, a new design featuring the coat of arms was issued. Fifty values from 1s3d to £1000 were issued, and like the Queen Victoria design, the lower values were valid for postage. Higher values were technically valid for postage as well, but they did not see postal use simply because the denominations were higher than the postal rates. In 1939, some of these were issued overprinted with their face value in large black numerals, in order to help distinguish these values from others which had a similar colour. Twenty eight of these were issued ranging from 3s6d to £1000.