PUERTO RICO, Coamo Provisional, 1898, 5c Black, Ty. I (201). Position 4, full framelines to touched at right, small bit of ink smearing at right of stamp extends to cover and may be a tying cancel but ambiguous, affixed to typed-address cover to "Director de El Autonomista" in Ponce P.R., "Military Sta. 1 Porto Rico, Wash. D.C. Recd. Aug. 19, '98" backstamp, opened roughly at right, heavy central file fold, stamp with slight edge scuff along frameline at right

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. A RARE 5-CENT 1898 COAMO PROVISIONAL ISSUE USED LOCALLY ON COVER, DURING THE APPROXIMATE THREE WEEK PERIOD IN WHICH REGULAR STAMPS WERE NOT AVAILABLE. THIS IS THE EARLIEST KNOWN ON-COVER USE. (SEE ALSO LOT 444)

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 .

Census No. 201-COV-02. Ex Tittmann and Junghanns

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