AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIA.

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Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603-1659) and ship "Heemskerk".
First stamp in a set of 6, issued on 09.10.1963.
Face value: 4 Australian shilling.
Design: Walter Jardine (1884-1970).
Printing: Recess.
Print: 5,199,052 copies.
Size: 38 x 24 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 331.
- Scott No. 374.
- Seven Seas Stamps No. 386.
- StampWorld No. 330.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 355.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 299.

Abel Janszoon Tasman (Lutjegast, province of Groningen, 1603 - Batavia, present-day Djakarta, October 10, 1659) was a Dutch sailor, explorer and merchant, famous for the voyages made between 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC). His was the first known European expedition to reach the present-day island of Tasmania at the end of 1642, to which he gave the name of Van Diemen's Land (honor of Anthony van Diemen, governor general of the Dutch East India Company who promoted the expedition), and to New Zealand, and who sighted the Fiji Islands in 1643. Tasman, his pilot, Visscher, and his purser, Gilsemans, charted important parts of the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, and several of the Pacific islands.