24c Rose, War (O91). Horizontal pair, tied by bold strikes of quartered cork cancels, "Washington D.C. May 9" (1876) circular datestamp on large-size "Office of the Chief Signal Officer. Official Business." imprint cover to Tokyo (Yedo), Japan, addressed to "Prof. Benj. Smith Lyman, Chief Geologist and Mining Engineer, Joumin, Daimon, Shiba, Yedo, Japan", red crayon "4" for quadruple 12c treaty rate (the treaty rate was reduced to 5c in April 1876), red "Yokohama Paid All Jun. 29" double-circle datestamp, Japanese datestamp and writing on back, pencil 1876 receipt docketing at upper left, opened for display, some slight wear and faults, small piece out at upper left, right 24c stamp small perf flaws

FINE. THE ONLY RECORDED FULL COVER BEARING THE 24-CENT WAR DEPARTMENT ISSUE (THE OTHER TWO USES ARE PACKAGE LABELS). THIS SPECTACULAR COVER, ADDRESSED TO BENJAMIN SMITH LYMAN IN JAPAN, IS CONSIDERED TO BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL OFFICIAL COVERS.

This cover was prepaid for the quadruple 12c treaty rate, which had been superseded by a 5c treaty rate one month earlier. It was carried to Yokohama by the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. and then to Tokyo. A Japanese official translated the address into Japanese on back for the benefit of the local postman and then applied his seal.

The census by Alan C. Campbell ("High Value Official Stamps on Cover," Chronicle 188, Nov. 2000, pp. 287-299) lists three 24c War Department covers, including two used with the 90c on package labels and this full cover to Japan. This cover is No. 38 in the census. Mr. Campbell refers to the pair of War Department covers to Japan offered in this sale as "rivals" to the Commodore Caldwell 24c and 30c Navy Department covers that were previously sold by our firm. The article contains a description of the covers from the late Dr. Lobdell, which we quote below:

"Both covers were sent by the War Department's Chief Signal Officer to 'Benjamin Smith Lyman, Chief Geologist and Mining Engineer to the Kaitakushi.' Lyman was a Harvard graduate who later studied at the Ecole de Mines in Paris and set himself up as a consulting geologist. Between 1873 and 1879 he was chief geologist to the Japanese government, principally working for the Kaitakushi, which was an agency with the responsibility for the colonization and development of the natural resources of the northern island of Hokkaido. (Hokkaido was Japan's version of our frontier in '70s, so that while we were sending homesteaders into our West and killing off the Indians, they were populating Hokkaido with ethnic Japanese and doing a number on the native hairy Ainu.) The pair of 24c War stamps pays four times the treaty rate of 12c per half ounce for mail from the United States to Japan. (Although the General Postal Union rate of 5c per half ounce for international mail was already in force for many countries, Japan did not sign the GPU until the following year.) The letter was mailed in Washington, D.C. on May 9 and reached Yokohama on June 29, 1876, where a red 'Yokohama Paid All' was applied by the US postal station there. It then took nine more days to travel less than twenty-five miles to Mr. Lyman at his lodgings in Yedo (the old name for Tokyo). How did it get from the US to Japan? There were two possible routes: (I) via New York to London, where it would have been put on a British ship round the Cape of Good Hope to the Orient, or (2) via the recently-completed transcontinental railroad to San Francisco, where it would have been put on an American ship to Yokohama. Since the envelope lacks New York and London transit markings, I favor the Trans-Pacific route. Both covers were at one time in the collection of Congressman Ackerman, the leading collector of United States official covers in the early part of this century."

From the Magnolia collection. Ex Ackerman, Knapp, Hughes, Duckworth and Dr. Lobdell (acquired by him in the 1963 sale of the Duckworth collection).

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