Kokoda in Papua New Guinea holds a special place in Australia's military history. The Kokoda Track Campaign was fought here between July and November 1942 between Japanese and Allied - primarily Australian - forces in the then Australian territory of Papua. Australia Post's issuing policy normally restricts stamp issues to celebrating anniversaries in multiples of 50 (i.e. 50th, 100th etc.), however for joint issues special consideration is applied.

Those interested in the design of these stamps should visited Brian Clinton's website at http://www.brianclintonauthentics.com/.

Issue Information
This issue commemorates both the Kokoda Campaign of 1942, the veterans, and present day Kokoda. $1.45 is the rate for mail to Papua New Guinea.

Gummed Sheet Stamps
The Australian stamps are printed in a se-tenant strip of four (55c x 4), with the $1.45 printed in separate sheets of 50. Interestingly, the Papua New Guinea stamps were printed in a se-tenant strip of three (K1.00 x 3) and a pair (K4.65 x 2).

 
Australian Stamps

 
Papua New Guinea Stamps

Gummed Gutter Strips
The gutter shows the Pacific medal and a medallion. This issue actually has a gutter strip of eight, but will be collected (and sold) as a gutter strip of 10.

Gutter strip

Gummed Miniature Sheet Stamps
The miniature sheet contains a unique strip of five stamps, with the $1.45 between two pairs of 55c stamps. There are minor shade differences between the 55c stamps in the miniature sheet and their sheet versions, but stamps exist with in-between shades. However the $1.45 is a distinct shade, as noted below:

The same shade difference also exists between the K4.65 Memorial sheet and miniature sheet stamps from Papua New Guinea, suggesting that this difference is constant.

Gummed Miniature Sheets
The miniature sheet contains a unique strip of five stamps, with the $1.45 between two pairs of 55c stamps. Unlike the arrangement of sheet stamps, the miniature sheets of both countries show the stamps in the same order, and are the same size.

Australian miniature sheet

Papua New Guinea miniature sheet

First Day Cover Miniature Sheets
Collectors of first day covers might notice that the miniature sheets used on first day covers measure 160 mm x 85 mm. Australia Post advises me that the top 5 mm of the miniature sheets was trimmed off to enable machine affixing onto first day covers.

This site will not list this as a variation, as examples can be easily manufactured by trimming off the top 5 mm.

First day cover (left) and regular miniature sheet (right)

Gummed Booklet Panes
A prestige booklet (sold at $10.95) with more information on the Kokoda Campaign contained various three blocks of four.

 

Prestige booklet panes (click on each pane for an enlargement)

Gummed Booklets
The above three panes were issued in a prestige boooklet.

Prestige booklet

Self-adhesive Coil Stamps
The four 55c stamps will be issued in self-adhesive coils of 100 stamps. Incredibly this is the first issue coil issue for 2010.

Self-adhesive strip

Self-adhesive Booklet Stamps
The four 55c stamps were also issued in booklets of 10 stamps. Unlike past issues released in both coils and booklets, both versions are identical (including under UV light).

Collectors will also note the layout of the self-adhesive booklet allows sets of four to be easily removed from the booklet.

The Stamp Bulletin states the paper used for the booklets was B90. I believe this is an error. B90 is regularly used for coil stamps, and B100 for booklets. B100 is needed for booklets as the reverse of the backing paper is suitable for printing booklet 'covers'.

Self-adhesive booklet stamps

Self-adhesive Booklets
Booklets were distributed to post offices in chequebooks of 20 booklets. These are not listed on this website.

Booklet layout

Booklet cover (philatelic booklet)

Booklet cover (general booklet)

Postal Stationery

Maximum cards (from Australia Post website)

Issue Summary
The table below summarises the above information. The cost of each item is given, along with a total for each section. In some cases the stamps are only available from self-adhesive booklets (sold at face value), or from prestige booklets, souvenir sheets or folders (sold above face value).

Item and Description	Cost
For the General Collector
Gummed sheet stamps Horizontal se-tenant strip (4 x 55c) Single value from sheets ($1.45) Miniature sheets Miniature sheet Self-adhesive stamps 4 values from coil (4 x 55c)	$2.20 $1.45   $3.65   $2.20
Total	$9.50
For the Specialised Collector
Miniature sheet stamps $1.45 from miniature sheet (different shade) Gutter Strips Gutter strip of 10 (Medal and medallion) Blocks, pairs and strips Se-tenant horizontal strip of 5 from miniature sheet Blocks from prestige booklet panes Booklet panes Three panes from prestige booklet Booklets Booklets with philatelic barcode Booklets with general barcode Prestige booklet Postal stationery Maximum cards	$3.65   $5.50   $3.65 $10.95   $10.95   $5.50 $5.50 $10.95   $7.40
Total	$64.05
Grand Total	$73.55

References
Australia Post, Australian Stamp Bulletin, No. 303, March-April 2010
Wikipedia, Kokoda, accessed 15 March 2010

If you have more information, or spot an error, please e-mail me.