Lot 205
205
cover 1p red-brown, 3p deep blue, 6p yellow-green (1, 3, 4; S.G.1, 2, 5), horizontal pairs of each with large margins all around except at one side of one 3p and one 6p where just cut into, tied by oval grids to May 1853 folded letter from Halifax "p. Steamer" to Boston; backstamped Halifax MY 24 1853; one 6p crossed by cover filing crease; quadruple packet rate from Halifax to the U.S., a great rarity

Details
cover 1p red-brown, 3p deep blue, 6p yellow-green (1, 3, 4; S.G.1, 2, 5), horizontal pairs of each with large margins all around except at one side of one 3p and one 6p where just cut into, tied by oval grids to May 1853 folded letter from Halifax "p. Steamer" to Boston; backstamped Halifax MY 24 1853; one 6p crossed by cover filing crease; quadruple packet rate from Halifax to the U.S., a great rarity
Provenance
Wellburn
"Foxbridge", 1987

Lot Essay

A note had been inserted in the Daily Sun of Halifax on May 18, 1853 advertising that the One Penny stamps were ready for issue; this cover shows use a week later and is thought to represent the earliest use of the One Penny; the use of the three pairs is considered to be a unique franking; Argenti recorded one other 1sh 8p quadruple rate cover in the Colonel Green sale of 1942 but the rate was made up in another way.