COLOMBIA

COLOMBIA.

International Geophysical Year.
Portrait of Francisco José de Caldas. 
First stamp in a sef of 3, issued on 12.05.1958.
Face value: 10 cents of Colombian peso.
Design: Imre Mosdóssy (1904-1995).
Printed by the ÖsterreichischeStaatsdruckerei (Imprenta Nacional de Austria).
Printing: Photogravure.
Print: 5,000,000 copies.
Size: 40 x 25 mm.

Catalogues
- Leo Temprano No. 895.
- Michel No. 827.
- Scott No. 680.
- StampWorld No. 809.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 933.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 547.

On December 1, 1959, the twelve countries that had carried out scientific activities in and around Antarctica during the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year signed the Antarctic Treaty in Washington. The Treaty entered into force on June 23, 1961, and has been accepted by many other nations. The Treaty recognizes, among other things, the interest of all humankind that Antarctica continue to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord. The signatory countries were: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Francisco José de Caldas y Tenorio (Popayán, October 4, 1768 - Santafé, October 28, 1816) was a Colombian scientist, military engineer, geographer, botanist, astronomer, naturalist and journalist, hero of the independence of Colombia. For his erudition and many knowledge about so many disciplines he was known among his contemporaries as El Sabio (“The Sage”), epithet with which he went down in the history of Colombia. He was the creator of the first hypsometer.