Quick! What's Odd About This Cover?

I can't figure it out.

Thats easy,

Cook did not discover the east coast of Australia, he was working with Dutch and Portuguese maps, and knew exactly where he was going.
Horamakhet

Horam, I won't comment on Mister Cook.

Tom, I'll explain later in the day. I want to let others puzzle it out.

Was the cover flown from Sydney to Washington D.C. the same day to receive matching dates on the postmarks or was one of the postmarks backdated?

US says Bicentennial vice AUSTRALIA says Bicentenary. They were both supposed to say "Bicentennial" to mirror each other?

The Koala is holding a hat on both stamps, but not on the cancel? The Koala has four fingers? Neither one is wearing pants?

Ah, the magic of the International Date Line.

Cook did not have/use an International Date line in 1770.

Besides ... "The Postal Service also announced that combination first-day covers affixed with both U.S. and Australian stamps were available by sending a check or money order of 49 cents and a self-addressed envelope to U.S./Australia Bicentennial Combination Cover, Postmaster, Washington, D.C. 20066-9994." So they were both "cancelled" in Washington DC on 26 Jan 88.

The picture of Capt Cook is reversed.... should be facing right, not left

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/...cfzvxHTwwaaQ

Hahaah, you guys are pretty clever!

I am sure this is not what you were looking for but as a note of irony, the ship on the cover "The Endeavor" was later repurposed by the British and renamed "Lord Sandwhich". It was used against the US in their war for independence.

In February 1776 it was used to deliver Hessian mercenaries to New York in support of the British forces and later anchored in Rhode Island and was intermittently used as a prison ship under the British flag.

So it has a unique history for each country.

Hobsun

Nice of the USPS to recognize far-away Australia's bicentennial.
I can't remember if they recognized their northern neighbour's centennial in '67; but, the US bicentennial didn't get a stamp out of Canada Post either in '76. Must have been that dang three-year lead-time requirement for stamp ideas.

OOPS!

I was wrong.

There WAS a Canadian and US joint-issue stamp June 1/1976.

As CP's blurb says:


"In celebration of the United States Bicentennial, the Canada Post Office and the United States Postal Service simultaneously issued stamps of a common design featuring Benjamin Franklin, a Postmaster General of British North America and a founding father of the United States. Benjamin Franklin contributed to the Canadian postal system by opening post offices in Montreal, Trois-Rivières and Quebec City.

Issued on June 1, 1976, the United States Bicentennial stamp features a portrait of Franklin. The background is an adaptation of an early engraved map of British North America showing important places to early postal history in North America and include the three Canadian post offices established by Franklin."

At least one of several FDCs said on the cachet:
"Canada salutes the American Revolution Bicentennial 1776-1976"

Mea Culpa

Another note of irony: NASA named one of the Space Shuttle orbiters Endeavour after that ship.

Robert

Bicentennial and Bicentenary mean the same except one is American English and the other is British English.

Do you mean Australian English? (Wink.)