1966 Matthew Flinders Plate Varieties

The varieties 463h/ha were made from the same electro. variety h corrected a weak band running across the unit resulting in the sails being weak or missing. The extensive recutting to correct this so weakened the plate that a crystalline fracture subsequently developed, which zig-zags across the main-mast and sails for 4.5mm resulting in variety ha.

The latter is scarce.



Variety 463h - The recutting can be seen on the bottom left stamp, from the main mast and sail to Flinders right eye




Variety 463ha - The crystalline fracture can be seen on the bottom left stamp, zig-zagging across the main-mast and sails

Sharp!

I'm a sailor (officer), so when I saw the name 'Flinders' the 'Flinders bar' is what instantly came to my mind. All deck officers around the world are familiar with the name Flinders, because he discovered a very easy method to counteract false magnetism from steel in your own vessel, so that the magnetic compass would be more reliable and navigation would become more precise. His invention probably helped to reduce the vast number of mis-navigation and disasters at sea during those pioneering times of inter-continental voyages, and thus contributed to saving countless lives of my 'former colleagues'. RIP.

Looks like they should have left it alone. They really messed it up.

That's a neat, and very easy variety to see.

Hi Blaamand

Thanks for sharing your story. Matthew Flinders was the first navigator to circumnavigate and accurately chart Australia, he also gave Australia its name.

Many people still believe that Captain Cook discovered Australia and named it. Lieutenant James Cook, Captain of H.M.Bark Endeavour, claimed the eastern portion of the Australian continent for the British Crown in 1770, naming it New South Wales.

Flinders was the most important of all the navigators that entered Australian waters, he was only 40 years old.

Hi txstamp

I agree, attempting to remedy the problem only made it worse. The bottom variety took nearly 3 years to find.

Rob