Southern Rhodesia Philately: 1964 Definitive Series – £1 Coat of Arms

“Another four-colour stamp, the second in the series, and its source was an official coloured plate of the Arms. Here the small format necessitated some thickening of parts of the design and the overall outline for reproduction in stamp size. The vignette technique has enabled two of the four colours in the Arms, the brown and vermilion, to be used also for the Queen’s portrait and value, and for the background. The shield shows a golden pick (“the pioneers who dug for gold”) and above it a lion passant between two thistles (the Rhodes’ family arms). Sable antelopes are the supporters and above the shield is a gold and green crest bearing the Great Zimbabwe Bird (a soapstone bird taken from the ancient ruins of Zimbabwe), now a symbol of Rhodesia. Beneath the shield is the motto Sit Nomine Digna—”Let Rhodesia be worthy of her name”.”