1¢ Blue, Type IV (9), recut once at top and twice at bottom, huge margins to in, used with vertical pair of 3¢ Dull Red, Type I (11), large margins to barely in at lower left, on 3¢ Red on Buff Nesbitt entire (U10) with Wells Fargo & Co. printed frank, addressed to Cincinnati, red "Wells, Fargo & Co. Express, Sacramento" oval handstamp applied to entire before stamps were affixed, also with blue "State [?], Paid, Office" oval handstamp at lower left, entered mails in New York City with stamps tied by "N. York Steamship" dateless circle handstamps

Fine appearance; stamps lifted and hinged in place to reveal the express markings, cover has been cleaned and edges improved, tiny tear at top right corner.

This is an extremely rare use of 1851 Issue stamps on a Wells Fargo & Company entire from Sacramento to Cincinnati, which was carried outside the government mails until it reached New York City. It is illustrated in Ashbrook, The United One Cent Stamp of 1851-1857, Volume 2 (p. 267), where he notes "this cover shows a California origin but no California postmark, showing it was carried outside of the mails to New York where it was marked with the 'N. York Steamship.' This cover may have gone by an independent line via Panama but it is more than probable it was the Nicaragua route."

Ex Dr. Scott Polland, George J. Kramer and Joseph Hackmey.

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