FIJI

FIJI / VITI - फ़िजी.

Map of Fiji Islands and portrait of King George VI.
Eigth stamp in a set of 25 (8 + 9 + 8), issued on 01.10.1940.
Face value: 2 pence.
Printing: Recess.
Size: 39 x 26 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 95II.
- Scott No. 133.
- StampWorld No. 114.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 254.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 116.

Fiji is an archipelago in Melanesia (South Pacific) made up of more than 330 islands (of which about 110 are permanently inhabited) and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 km² (7,100 sq mi). It is about 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) northeast of New Zealand. The majority of Fiji's islands formed through volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago.

Humans (first Austronesians and later Melanesins, with some Polynesian influences) have lived in Fiji since the second millennium BC. Europeans first visited Fiji in the 17th century, and after a brief period as an independent kingdom, the British established the Colony of Fiji in 1874. On October 10,1970 Fiji gained independence as the Dominion of Fiji. A military government declared a Republic in 1987.