California Pony Express Paid. Red double-line oval handstamp on blue folded invoice datelined "Havana 5 September 1860" from Levy Hermanos (Levy Brothers)--detailed invoice for 137,550 cigars in 15 cases, billed at $3,480.23, including shipping and customs duty--addressed to St. Losky, Levy & Co. in San Francisco, sender's directive "pr Pony Express" and "Paid" notation, blue "Forwarded by Duncan Sherman & Co. New-York" oval handstamp applied by commercial banking firm in New York City which received invoice from Cuba and forwarded it through the New York office of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, postage paid by 3¢ Dull Red, Ty. III (26) affixed over part of the written word "Express" and effectively tied by faint ink bleed, left uncancelled since this invoice was carried in a package of letters to St. Joseph for the next Pony trip, wedge-shaped sealed tear at bottom of address panel below blue oval

VERY FINE. AN EXTRAORDINARY COVER, WHICH TRAVELLED ON AN OCEAN STEAMSHIP FROM CUBA TO NEW YORK CITY, THEN BY TRAIN TO ST. JOSEPH, AND FROM THERE 1,800 MILES WEST TO CALIFORNIA BY PONY RIDERS, AND FINALLY BY RIVER STEAMBOAT FROM SACRAMENTO TO SAN FRANCISCO.

This folded invoice dated September 5, 1860, was written by the Levy Brothers firm in Havana, Cuba, and addressed to St. Losky, Levy & Co. in San Francisco, a major importer of Cuban cigars (see advertisement below). In 1855 the firm's principal, Julius Levy, had been convicted of illegally smuggling 67 cases of cigars into the United States (U.S. vs. Julius Levy), but the firm continued on for many years, operating a legitimate importing business.

The Levy Brothers employee wrote instructions on the address panel to send the invoice by Pony Express and marked it "Paid," presumably enclosing a form of payment for the express and postage charges. Assuming that it was mailed from Havana on or shortly after September 5, it was probably carried on a vessel arriving in New York City around September 10-11. There is nothing to indicate exactly when Duncan, Sherman & Company applied their oval forwarding handstamp, but they handed the invoice to the New York office of the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company, which was then located on the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street. At this time the COC&PP vice president, Jerome B. Simpson, was the firm's New York agent. Simpson was implicated in the Indian Trust Bond scandal in the late fall of 1860, and left New York City.

Based on the September 5, 1860, dateline and a New York September 10-11 steamship arrival date, it is assumed this made the Sunday, September 16, Pony departure from St. Joseph, which reached San Francisco on September 26.

FKW Census W13. Illustrated in Frajola-Kramer-Walske, The Pony Express: A Postal History (page 79). Ex W. R. Parker and Haas. With 1988 P.F. certificate.

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