October 17, 2023 UPDATE:  I have lowered my original Buy It Now Price from $1,000.00.00 to $300.00.  This is my lowest and best price.  FREE SHIPPING & INSURANCE within the USA.

This is a listing for a Nuphil Number Nu30.  This is the New Zealand 50 Cent Coin from the 1969 New Zealand Uncirculated Set (Polished Proof-like Sets).  Only 50,000 of these Uncirculated Sets were minted by the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra, Australia.   This Item will be 54 years old in October 2023.  Item # 243.

This is a First Day Issue of the Stamp, First Day Registered Cover with New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent Coin enclosed.  First Day Issue of the New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent Coin.  This New Zealand 50 Cent Coin is different than the earlier and later 50 Cent Coins with the H.M. Bark Endeavour on the reverse.  This New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent Coin has inscribed on the edge "COOK BI-CENTENARY 1769-1969".

The Nuphil Nu30  "New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent Coin" Cover is Number 216 of only 800 produced.  I am the original owner and purchaser of this set from Nuphil.

New Zealand 50 Cent Coin description:

Obverse: Queen Elizabeth II - Design by Arnold Machin.  Legend: ELIZABETH II NEW ZEALAND - 1969. 

Reverse: H.M.B. Endeavour - Design by James Berry.

Edge: Edge: Reeded - interrupted milling - 5 6.35mm plain segments.

Inscription: COOK BI-CENTENARY 1769-1969

Weight: 13.61 grams. Size: 31.75mm (diameter) Composition: 75% Copper, 25% Nickel

Mintage: Circulation: 50,000.   Proof-like: 50,000.

Mintmarks: None.

DESCRIPTION:   Nuphil Nu30 Cover Front Description:

In the Upper Left Hand Corner is the New Zealand Registered Stamp "R No. 216 Christchurch".  This NZ Registered Stamps sealed the envelope.  The envelope cannot be opened without breaking this seal.  Below this is a window displaying the New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent Proof-like Coin that is surrounded by a ship's wheel surrounded by 8 wheel handles.  This is partially surrounded by the map of Young Nick's Head.  This reverse has the “H.M.B. "ENDEAVOUR".  Reginald George James Berry is the designer of this Proof-like coin.  The window material has aged distorting the appearance of the coin.  The edge of the coin is inscribed, "COOK BI-CENTENARY 1769-1969".

In the Upper Right Hand Corner is two (2) of the New Zealand Captain Cook Bi-Centenary Stamps.  The 6 cent stamp which is light green and dark green.  The New Zealand 6 cent stamp has a profile of Joseph Banks and the H.M.B. Endeavour, and "COOK BICENTENARY".  Below this stamp is the New Zealand 18 cent stamp. The 18 cent stamp is light brown, dark brown and green.  It has the profile of Dr. Daniel Solander with the wording "COOK BICENTENARY".  Date of Issue and cancellation of these stamps is October 9, 1969.  This is a first day issue stamp and cover.  Stamps were designed by Miss E. Mayo, Christchurch, New Zealand.  The stamp also seals this envelope.  The envelope cannot be opened without tearing the stamp.  The stamp and cover has the cancellation stamp, "COOK BICENTENARY STAMPS'   'FIRST DAY OF ISSUE   9 OCT 1969'   'CHRISTCHURCH NZ".  Below this is the Nuphil address, "NUPHIL ASSOCIATES LTD.  P.O. BOX 7053  CHRISTCHURCH    NEW ZEALAND".

The crossed blue line represent a time when all New Zealand Registered Mail had to be wrapped and tied with a blue ribbon.

DESCRIPTION:   Nuphil Nu28 Cover Back Description:

In the Upper Left Hand side of the envelope is the "SYDENHAM POST OFFICE 9 OCT 1969" cancellation stamp.

In the Lower Right Hand side is a window displaying the obverse of the New Zealand James Cook Bicentenary Commemorative 50 Cent Proof-like Coin.  This is profile of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin.  The legend is "ELIZABETH II   NEW ZEALAND  1969"  The window material has aged distorting the appearance of the coin.

The crossed blue line represent a time when all New Zealand Registered Mail had to be wrapped and tied with a blue ribbon.

Also included is the original No. 216 CHRISTCHURCH RECEIPT OF REGISTERED MAIL cancelled 9 Oct 69 9-AM.

NOTE:  I also possess Nuphil Nu 29 (New Zealand James Cook One Dollar Proof-like Coin with First Day Issue Stamp & First Day Cancellation) and Nu 28 (Special Proof Bicentenary Medal of James Cook by the Franklin Mint with First Day Issue Stamp & First Day Cancellation), all with the same serial number of 216, which is the Registered Number.  These have been listed. 

Payment can be made by any method approved by eBay.

Shipping within the USA is FREE.  International Shipping is by eBay Global Shipping Program.

Reginald George James Berry (known as James) was born on 20 June 1906 in London, England, the second child of James Willie Berry, a clerk, and his wife, Amy Blanche Clarissa Wakefield. After the death of his father in 1911, James was sent to board at Russell Hill School from 1913 until 1922. He won prizes for art and his talent was fostered by an aunt, Lilian Berry, who exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts. At 16 he became an insurance clerk, but finding the work uncongenial he emigrated to New Zealand on the Ionic arriving in February 1925. Subsequently he paid off his assisted passage as a farm cadet in Gisborne. A slight youth, five feet three inches tall, he worked exhausting 12-hour days, and played weekend cricket and tennis.

After two years in Gisborne Berry began working as a commercial artist with the Goldberg Advertising Agency in Wellington. He saved sufficient to buy a section, and to marry Miriel Frances Hewitt, a secretary, at St Jude's Anglican Church, Lyall Bay, on 3 February 1932. They were to have five daughters and one son. In 1932 Berry left the Goldberg Agency and took on freelance work, including the design of advertising layouts for the New Zealand Radio Record and New Zealand Dairy Exporter. From 1935 until 1942 he was staff artist at the Dominion, and during this time produced the popular historical booklet New Zealand in review (1940), which went to several editions. He was drafted to Mayer and Kean, engravers, on war work from 1942 until May 1944. Thereafter he was self-employed, designing book covers, illustrations, bookplates and, increasingly, stamps, coins and medals.

Berry's delicate designs were largely created for competitions. His first successful design for a health stamp in 1933 led to a regular commission for this series for 25 years. Further stamp designs were sought by New Zealand, Western Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, and once by Bermuda. Berry produced nine of the twelve designs for the 1940 centennial stamp issue, and the entire peace issue of 1946. He went on to design the notable series of lighthouse stamps for the Government Insurance Department issues, the first of which appeared in 1947. While they enjoyed popular approval, his designs were described as trite and mundane by some New Zealand critics. However, in 1948 he was described in the American journal Weekly Philatelic Gossip as 'the greatest postage stamp designer in the world'.

His first medal design, a commemorative piece for the New Zealand Aero Club, appeared in 1935. The previous year Berry had joined the New Zealand Numismatic Society, which recommended his design for the reverse of their Waitangi-Bledisloe Medal, and for the Waitangi Crown, both of which were issued in 1935. The crown was part of a new series that replaced British coinage in New Zealand.

In 1950 Berry was invited to Tonga to advise on the philatelic commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship with Great Britain, and Queen Salote's birthday. Stimulated by this trip he promptly decided to become a commercial traveller around New Zealand, so that he could pursue his interest in landscape painting, but a massive heart attack in 1962 curtailed these activities. Later, he optimistically embarked on ill-starred ventures such as bookselling, dealing in coins, and speculation in real estate.

In 1964 New Zealand decided to change to decimal currency; designs were invited, and Berry offered four sets, featuring New Zealand flora and fauna. There was overwhelming public support for Berry's designs in a nationwide newspaper poll, and one set was selected in 1966. It was subsequently approved by the Royal Mint and issued in 1967. Berry was sent to the Royal Mint to acquire further skills and this experience was of lasting benefit. Having gained in confidence, he competed for the British decimal designs but was unsuccessful. However, his prestige in New Zealand was such that the Dominion Sunday Times declared him to be '1966 Man of the Year', and in 1968 he was appointed an OBE.

In 1978 Berry was made an honorary member of the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand. Membership of the New Zealand Ex Libris Society and of the Friends of the Turnbull Library catered for his interests in books, but his first allegiance lay with the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand (formerly the New Zealand Numismatic Society), of which he was variously secretary, vice president, president and fellow.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s James Cook's discoveries in the South Pacific were commemorated in stamps, coins, plaques and statues. Berry was called on to produce so many designs that he became an expert on the explorer. From 1971 there were frequent invitations to the Franklin Mint in Pennsylvania and in 1972 one to the Royal Australia Mint in Canberra. The Australian visit resulted in his largest commission: 60 silver-on-gold medallions for the Medallic History of Australia. The task took him over five years, but he found time in 1973 to deliver the Sutherland Lecture to the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand in the form of a practical demonstration on 'The art production of coins and medals', and to arrange an exhibition of his work in the National Museum in 1975–76. Berry also received further commissions from Britain: for medallions of Oliver Cromwell and Winston Churchill, from the Cook Islands for additions to its decimal coinage, and from New Zealand for a series of commemorative dollars. He was granted the rare honour of incorporating his version of the Queen's head on four of these dollar coins.

In his last years Berry travelled frequently. He mounted a retrospective exhibition in New Zealand House, London, in 1977; subsequently his landscape painting took him to Ireland, which because of tax concessions to artists was a more attractive domicile than New Zealand. In 1978 he prepared an exhibition of his own landscapes in Dublin, and in 1979 designed his last medal, for the papal visit. He then paid final visits to relatives and friends in England before returning to Auckland. There, on 6 November 1979, he boarded the plane for Wellington, and immediately suffered a fatal heart attack. Three days later a crowded funeral was held in Wellington's Anglican cathedral. He was survived by his wife and children. During his lifetime, Berry completed more than 1,000 designs for stamps, coins and medals. His talents received one final accolade: the gold medal of the Accademia Italiana dell'Arte e del Lavoro in 1980.