Rare map on new German stamp

Eux.TV of the Netherlands reports that yesterday Germany issued the stamp shown here which commemorates the German cartographer, Martin Waldseemüller, who unwittingly gave the Americas the wrong name in a map he drew 500 years ago.

The postage stamp depicts 12 sectional maps in the style of the Waldseemüller wood-block-printed map of the world.

Waldseemüller, unaware that Christopher Columbus was the first European sea-captain to reach the Americas, placed the landmass and its peoples on his map under a name inspired by Amerigo Vespucci (1471-1512), an Italian-born Spanish explorer.



Shown above is Waldseemüller's 1507 map which was purchased in 2003 for $10 million by the Library of Congress making it one of world's most valuable maps.

For more on Herr Waldseemüller, click here.

For more on maps on stamps, click here.