10c Black (2). Vertical pair and single, pair with ample to large margins, single with three large margins to just in at bottom, tied by blue manuscript and red New York "10" in circle cancels on blue Feb. 14, 1849 folded letter from Montreal, Canada to New York City, from the Kennedy correspondence, red "Montreal/Paid/FE 14/1849/Canada" tombstone style datestamp, manuscript "1/6" (quadruple Canadian rate), top stamp with minor crease from filing folds which have been skillfully pressed

VERY FINE. A SPECTACULAR TRIPLE-RATE USE OF THE 10-CENT 1847 ISSUE FROM CANADA TO NEW YORK. ONE OF THE FEW EXAMPLES OF THIS RARE USE WITH THE STAMPS TIED BY A UNITED STATES POST OFFICE MARKING, AND THE LARGEST RECORDED 1847 ISSUE FRANKING FROM CANADA.

The 10c 1847 Issue stamps were affixed to the cover in Canada and paid the triple rate from the border to New York City. Canadian postage "to the lines" was paid in cash, with the "1/6" (1sh, 6p) rate reflecting the quadruple-rate to the border (triple rate was not possible in Canada -- see below for an explanation). Among all the 1847 Issue covers from Canada recorded in the USPCS online census, this is the only cover with an over-300 miles triple-rate franking for U.S. postage and the highest franking from Canada.

The Post Office Reform Act of 1845 greatly simplified the rate structure for sending mail. It provided for a 10c rate per half ounce for distances over 300 miles, with an increase of 10c for each additional half ounce or portion thereof.

A clause included in the Act of March 3, 1849 (30th Congress, Session II, Ch. 104) modified the postage on a letter weighing more than one ounce to bring U.S. domestic rate progression in line with the 1848 U.S.-Great Britain postal treaty, which had gone into effect on February 15, 1849. The relevant clause reads:

"That the better to enable the postal treaty with Great Britain to go Into full effect with equal advantage to both countries, letters shall be mailed as composing one rate only where the letter does not exceed the weight of a half ounce avoirdupois; where it exceeds a half ounce, but does not exceed an ounce, as composing two rates; where it exceeds an ounce, but does not exceed two ounces, as composing four rates..."

This change eliminated the 30c rate for a letter weighing between one and one-and-a-half ounces and traveling over 300 miles. Letters weighing between one and two ounces would be charged four times the single rate (40c for distances over 300 miles). The elimination of the triple rate went into effect with the Postmaster General's notice on March 15, 1849. Therefore, the use of 1847 Issue stamps to prepay a triple rate was allowed for approximately 20 months. This cover was mailed in February 1849, just before the rate change went into effect.

Ex Dale-Lichtenstein, Peyton and Kapiloff

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