2022 NEW ZEALAND 2022 Poppy Appeal 100 Years Miniature Sheet First Day Cover

The year 2022 marks 100 years of the RSA Poppy Appeal in New Zealand. Every year on the Friday before Anzac Day, volunteers collect charitable donations in exchange for remembrance poppies. This stamp issue celebrates the poppy and its various forms, and everything it has meant to New Zealanders for the past 100 years. 

Madame Anna Guérin of France is credited with the idea of the remembrance poppy. Through selling fabricated poppies, Guérin raised funds for a charity to rebuild livelihoods in France in the wake of WWI.  

Although the remembrance poppy’s appearance has evolved through the years, the help the RSA Poppy Appeal affords service veterans today is as important as it was for veterans of WWI and the families who had lost their loved ones. The act of buying and wearing a poppy is a powerful way to show support for veterans and to remember those who have passed on.