DESCRIPTION

5¢ Red Brown (1), horizontal strip of ten--Positions 91-100L, the full row from the bottom of the left pane with left sheet margin and right interpane margin--9mm sheet margin at left (piece missing) and 4mm interpane margin at right, margins at top and bottom are large to full except for one stamp where clear at bottom, bright shade (nearly Orange Brown), tied by multiple strikes of red square grid cancel on large brown envelope to the clerk of the Lake County Circuit Court, Waukegan, Illinois, red "New-York Jun. 7" (1851) circular datestamp with blue manuscript "10" (cents) below date indicating underpaid postage, either paid in cash (or charge) or disregarded by New York City post office, which applied the red "PAID" in arc handstamp not usually seen on covers of this period, red printed corner card at top covered by strip ("[LIV]INGSTON, SECRETARY" visible), green Commissioner in New York seal on back signed by John Livingston, a prominent attorney and law journal publisher, the envelope contained depositions taken by Livingston and submitted to the court, receipt docketing dated June 9, 1851

PROVENANCE

William L. Stevenson (sold privately to Ackerman through Perry)

Rep. Ernest R. Ackerman (sold privately to Gibson through Perry)

Henry C. Gibson, Sr. (sold privately to Sweet through Ward)

Frank R. Sweet

Ryohei Ishikawa, Christie's Robson Lowe sale, 9/28-29/1993, lot 22, to Hackmey

Joseph Hackmey (collection sold privately to William H. Gross, 2010)

Pencil notes "2/25 3750.00" and "7/69 100,000.00" in different writing refer to past transaction dates and prices

CENSUS, LITERATURE AND EXHIBITION REFERENCES

USPCS census no. 7177 https://www.uspcs.org/resource-center/censuses/1847-cover-census/

Stanley B. Ashbrook, Special Service, #13, p. 86, photo 39

Gordon Eubanks, Jr., "Covers with Three or More 1847 Stamps," Chronicle 254, fig. 1

Jonathan W. Rose, Classic United States Imperforate Stamps, p. 10

Philip H. Ward, Jr., Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News, 1935, Vol. 69, p. 265

Biographical information about John Livingston:

M. H. Hoeflich, "John Livingston & the Business of Law in Nineteenth- Century America," The American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Oct., 2000), pp. 347-368 [accessed through www.jstor.org]

CERTIFICATION

The Philatelic Foundation (1993)

CONDITION NOTES

Fine; left stamp with a piece out and small tears, two other stamps with small tears, one with vertical crease from file fold

HISTORY AND COMMENTARY

50¢ Postage for an Obsolete Odd-Increment Rate

This phenomenal cover bears a strip of ten of the 5¢ 1847, which is the largest known multiple of the 1847 Issue on cover for either denomination. The horizontal strip is the entire bottom row of the left pane of 100 (the sheets of 200 were printed in two panes of 100, left and right). The perimeter sheet margin is at left, and the interpane (gutter) margin is at right. The ninth stamp in each row of the left pane usually has a dot in the "S" of "US," but there was no dot on Position 99L.

The strip was affixed to this large envelope in June 1851 and mailed by John Livingston, a prominent New York attorney and legal publisher, to a circuit court in Illinois. The depositions he enclosed were heavy, and the distance was over 300 miles, so a multiple of the 10¢ rate was required. The 50¢ postage was intended to pay the five-times rate for a letter weighing between 2 and 2.5 ounces. However, by June 1851 the odd weight increments had been eliminated, so this should have been prepaid 60¢. The New York post office marked the cover 10¢ underpaid with the blue manuscript "10" below the postmark date, but the "PAID" handstamp indicates that the 10¢ was either paid in cash (or charge) or disregarded.

The reason for the elimination of the odd rate increments lies in the postal treaty made between the U.S. and Great Britain. The Act of 1845 established the 5¢ under-300 and 10¢ over-300 miles rates that became the basis of the 1847 first general issue. The rates were based on half-ounce weight increments until March 15, 1849, after the postal treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain went into effect one month earlier. At that point, the odd rate increments over one ounce had to be eliminated in the U.S., because Great Britain charged one rate per ounce over the first ounce. To align the U.S. and British rates, the half-ounce and one-ounce increments were kept, but the U.S. half-ounce incremental rates over one ounce were eliminated. Starting March 15, 1849, the rates are shown at below:

This magnificent cover can be traced back to the collection formed by Ernest R. Ackerman, who is reported to have bought the cover from the William L. Stevenson collection. From Ackerman the cover passed to Henry C. Gibson, Sr., and Frank R. Sweet in private transactions. It appeared at auction in the 1993 Christie's sale of the Ishikawa collection, where it was sold to Joseph Hackmey. In 2010 Mr. Gross acquired the entire Hackmey collection in a private transaction.

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