Sale 1211 — The William H. Gross Collection: United States Postal History
Sale Date — Tuesday-Wednesday, 29-30 October, 2019
Category — 1847 Issue—5¢ and 10¢ Combination and Multiple Frankings
Extraordinary use of three 10¢ 1847 stamps to pay six-times under-300 miles rate10¢ Black (2), three singles, Positions 8R, 48R and 46R from left to right, mostly large margins except left stamp just touched at top right corner, tied by multiple strikes of red-orange "10" rate handstamp, matching "Northampton Ms. Jun. 24" (1848) circular datestamp on blue folded cover to Pollen & Colgate, 287 Pearl Street, New York City, sender's manuscript "Paid" notation at bottom left
Very Fine; center and right stamps with very light scoring lines.
The Ludlow Beebee correspondence yielded a number of 10¢ covers with three stamps sent between Boston and Philadelphia. However, since that distance is greater than 300 miles, those covers are triple 10¢ rate uses. This cover from Northampton, Massachusetts, to New York City traveled about 160 miles, so this is clearly an extremely rare six-times 5¢ rate use--other covers from the Pollen & Colgate correspondence were paid with a single 5¢ stamp. The USPCS census lists only one other identical franking which may have paid a six-times rate (it was sent close to 300 miles so it is possible it was a triple 10¢ rate).
Ex Dr. Ralph Poriss, Guido Craveri and Joseph Hackmey. With 1971 P.F. certificate.
