10c Yellow (116). Deep shade, used with 6c Carmine (148), interpane straight edge at left, each stamp tied by circle of wedges cancel, perfect bold strike of "U.S. Postal Ag'cy Shanghai Dec. 12, 1871" circular datestamp on blue cover to Mrs. Charles B. Clark, Greenwich, England, sender's directive "Via San Francisco"--carried on PMSS Oregonian, departing Shanghai Dec. 12, 1871, arriving Yokohama Dec. 20, then by PMSS China, departing Yokohama Dec. 23, arriving San Francisco Jan. 15, 1872--magenta "San Francisco Cal. Paid Jan. 16" circular datestamp on back, London receiving backstamps (Feb. 15, 1872)

VERY FINE. A COLORFUL AND RARE MIXED-ISSUE FRANKING WITH THE 10-CENT 1869 PICTORIAL AND 6-CENT 1870 NATIONAL BANK NOTE ISSUES, PAYING THE COMBINED TREATY RATES FROM CHINA TO ENGLAND VIA THE UNITED STATES. THIS IS ALSO THE ONLY EXAMPLE OF THE "1871" YEAR-DATED U.S. POSTAL AGENCY IN SHANGHAI DATESTAMP.

The first use of this new device with the "U.S. Postal Ag'cy" designation is on this cover dated December 12, 1871. This is the only recorded example of this circular datestamp with a year date, which was removed in 1872 and never replaced. The 10c 1869 Pictorial and 6c 1870 Bank Note Issue stamps pay the 10c U.S.-China and the 6c U.S.-Great Britain treaty rates. This cover is illustrated in Frajola-Perlman-Scamp book (p. 111), Laurence 10c 1869 book (p. 282) and 1869 Census book (p. 51).

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