Year of Issue: 1976Mintage: 2,027,000
Many thanks to friend, Emeye, NewZealand for sending me this wonderful coin.
Although I have many stamps of Captain James Cook, his ship Endeavour, his voyage, first time I have a coin in this subject.
HMS Endeavour, also known as HM Bark Endeavour, was a Royal Navy research vessel commanded by Lieutenant James Cook on his first voyage of discovery, to Australia and New Zealand from 1769 to 1771.
In 1766, the Royal Society hired Cook to travel to the Pacific Ocean to observe and record the transit of Venus across the Sun. Cook was promoted to Lieutenant and named as commander of the expedition. She reached Tahiti on 10 April, where she remained for the next two months. The transit of Venus across the Sun occurred on June 3rd, and was observed and recorded by astronomer Charles Green from Endeavour’s deck.
In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasman's Heemskerck 127 years earlier.
In April 1770, Endeavour became the first seagoing vessel to reach the east coast of Australia, when Cook went ashore at what is now known as Botany Bay.
