10c Brown (150). Rich color, cancelled by blue crossroads cancel, matching "Hakodadi Japan May 5" (1874) circular datestamp, underinked mostly readable strike on cover from Flora Best Harris to her uncle, Reverend S. B. Best, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, sender's directive "P.M. If not in Coatesville, please forward", with original 5-page letter enclosure datelined "Hakodadi, Japan, Apr. 27, 1874" from Flora to her aunt and uncle, chatty content about life in Hakodate and missionary work with her husband, Reverend Merriman Colbert Harris, short directive in letter "Address [your letters] in Care Mr. J. H. Hawes, U.S. Consul" (John Hart Hawes)--carried by PMSS branch-line steamer from Hakodate to Yokohama, then by PMSS Great Republic, departing Yokohama May 22, 1874, and arriving San Francisco June 16--clearly struck "San Francisco Cal. Jun. 16" double-circle datestamp, glue stains around small opening tears along top (could be removed by a paper conservator)

FINE. ONLY THREE COVERS ARE RECORDED WITH THE DATESTAMP USED AT THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE AT HAKODATE, WHICH HAD A SMALL AMERICAN POPULATION AND LIMITED MAIL SERVICE IN 1874, BEFORE ALL UNITED STATES POST OFFICES IN JAPAN WERE DISCONTINUED AFTER DECEMBER 31, 1874.

Although the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa established Hakodate as one of the two ports open to Americans, the U.S. did not establish a post office there until much later, in 1873, around the time the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. began service between Yokohama and Hakodate. This post office was closed on December 31, 1874, when all U.S. post offices in Japan were discontinued, and the new Japanese Foreign Postal Service took over international mails on January 1, 1875. The short-lived Hakodate office--spelled "Hakodadi" in the datestamp--served a small community of British and American residents. British consular reports cited by Spaulding (Japanese Philately 181) show that in 1875 only 6 Americans and 22 other Western residents lived there, and in 1874 there were just 11 arrivals of a U.S. mail ship.

Illustrated on cover of Japanese Philately 181 (October 1972) and discussed further in June 1978 issue; illustrated in Riddell pamphlet (p. 11) and Frajola-Perlman-Scamp book (p. 199).

Discovered by William O. Bilden in 1961. Ex Robert M. Spaulding, Jr.

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