5¢ Red Brown, 10¢ Black (1, 2), 10¢ horizontal strip of three, ample to clear margins, 5¢ just touched at top and left, each stamp with matching pen cancel, "Waterford N.Y. Nov. 4" (ca. 1848) circular datestamp at far left on large buff "Office--Hudson River Insurance Company, Morgan Row--Broad Street, Waterford N.Y." corner card envelope to Rouses Point, New York

Fine and unique combination of the 5¢ with 10¢ 1847 strip of three on a domestic cover; cover with some edgewear and small reduction at far left well clear of datestamp, 5¢ with corner crease and middle 10¢ stamp with tiny margin tear.

This cover is franked to pay the under-300 miles rate for a 3.5-ounce letter, or seven times the 5¢ rate. The USPCS census lists five covers with this combination of stamps, but this is the only recorded domestic use among that group. The half-ounce rate increments were eliminated in March 1849. For this and other reasons, examples of 5¢ and 10¢ 1847 combinations for the half-ounce increment are rare. Waterford, New York, received no 1847 stamps, but its proximity to Albany (14 miles north of the capital) meant that stamps found their way there, as eleven 1847 covers are recorded from Waterford.

Ex James Hughes, Guido Craveri and Joseph Hackmey. Illustrated in The United States 1847 Issue: A Cover Census (p. 541). With 1996 P.F. certificate.

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