PUERTO RICO, Coamo Provisional, 1898, 5c Black, Ty. II (201). Position 10, three full framelines to just in at top, tied by light strike of receiving handstamp on textured cover to Ponce P.R., clear strike of "Postage Due 2 cts" handstamp applied at receiving office with "2" in manuscript, "Military Sta. 1 Porto Rico, Wash. D.C. Recd. Aug. 24 '98" backstamp, two more faint strikes on front incl. one that ties the stamp, central file fold, irregular top left edge and small cover tear to left of stamp

VERY FINE. THIS IS ONE OF ONLY TWO LOCAL USES OF THE RARE 5-CENT 1898 COAMO PROVISIONAL ISSUE TIED ON COVER. IT IS ALSO ONE OF ONLY TWO KNOWN USES WITH THE U.S. POSTAGE DUE HANDSTAMP, APPLIED AT PLAYA DE PONCE.

The origin of the Coamo covers was discussed in a 1988 article in Possessions by Ovidio Davila. Davila states that Alfred O. Tittmann, the stamp collector who is known to have purchased the remainder sheets and brought them to the United States for sale, also obtained a number of Coamo covers with single stamps used to Ponce. He sold these covers to Mr. Robert L. Junghanns between 1920 and 1923. The six Coamo covers offered in this section come from the Junghanns collection.

Ten Coamo covers are known in total, including three which were used by Captain R. D. Potts on mail to San Francisco. Seven are known with single Coamo stamps exhibiting the proper local use within Puerto Rico during the approximate three-week period when regular stamps were not available. None of the stamps was cancelled at its origination, probably because there were no cancelling devices left in Coamo when the Spanish evacuated. The re-emergence of these covers after decades off the market has afforded the opportunity to compile an updated census of the known covers, which is available at http://www.siegelauctions.com/dynamic/census/PR_201/PR_201.pdf .

The four known tied Coamo Provisionals on cover, including one of the two local uses offered here, were cancelled in transit or at the receiving post office (two are from the group sent by Potts). The presence of the postage due handstamp on this and the cover offered in the previous lot is evidence that military postal officials in Ponce did not regard the Coamo stamp as paying U.S. postage. However, this was not applied consistently as these are the only two covers that have evidence of postage due.

Census No. 201-COV-03. Ex Tittmann and Junghanns

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