8c Trans-Mississippi, Vertical Pair, Imperforate Horizontally (289a). With right selvage, original gum, lightly hinged, deep rich color, wide margins, few natural gum creases as almost always, pencil notation in selvage has been erased but leaves minor indentation

EXTREMELY FINE. A DESIRABLE PAIR OF THE 8-CENT TRANS-MISSISSIPPI ISSUE IMPERFORATE HORIZONTALLY, WITH WIDE SHEET SELVAGE AT RIGHT, FROM THE McCOY STRIP.

According to the Neil-Rosenthal book (pp. 115-118), one pane of 50 was discovered by Robert Watts, a stamp clerk at one of the sales windows at the Philadelphia General Post Office, who found it between the wrapping paper of a bundle of stamps. He sold it for double face value ($8.00) to Herman Lewis, a locksmith in Philadelphia. Lewis soon sold it to William S. F. Pierce, who broke it into three pieces: a vertical strip of ten with sheet margin and full arrow at right, a vertical block of 20 containing both plate blocks, and a vertical block of 20 with natural straight edge at left.

The strip of ten was reportedly sold for $15.00 and was taken to Europe when the owner moved there. It returned to the U.S. in the 1930's, when it was broken. Ethel McCoy owned the vertical strip of four with arrow, and the pair offered here was part of that strip. The vertical block of 20 with straight edge at left was sold to Arthur E. Tuttle, a Philadelphia stamp dealer, who retailed them for $10.00 per pair. The block of 20 with both plate numbers was retained by Pierce, who later sold the top and bottom plate blocks to Albert Batchelder of the New England Stamp Co. for $175.00.

With 1992 P.F. certificate. Illustrated as part of the McCoy strip in the Brookman book on page 181.

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