March Internet Auction

Airmail, 1928, 10¢ Lindbergh, booklet pane of 3, with tab, two covers, both tied by "Miami, Fla. Feb 4, 1929" machine cancel with "Airmail Service" illustrated airplane flight slogan on flight cover Canal Zone, "K.A.M. 5 Miami-Canal Zone" flight cachet, one addressed to Costa Rica and other to British Honduras, both returned to Washington D.C., "Cristobal, Canal Zone, Feb 6, 1929" arrival backstamp, complete and unexploded, Very Fine pair.

Scott No. C10a   ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦  Estimate $75 - 100.

Postage Due, 1910, 2¢ deep claret, S.L. watermark, perf. 12, seven pencil-canceled examples on reverse of 1913 cover from Queensland, Australia to Mount Jackson Va. bearing four Victoria issue 1d red, "70 CTMS T" due handstamp and blue crayon rating with "3" noted at top left for triple-rate, San Francisco "U.S. CHARGE TO COLLECT 14 CENTS" handstamp with pencil rating, original thick letter enclosure; cover roughly opened at right affecting 1d pair, Fine appearance, an attractive and very interesting early 20th century international postage due cover.

Scott No. J46   ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦  Estimate $75 - 100.

Letter mailed on 21 Feb 1913, almost 2 months after Australian postage stamps were introduced to the Commonwealth. The colonies were allowed to continue use of their local stamps, apparently until they were exhausted. Cover bears a fractional notation "3/" in upper left corner of front. Usually this would be written as "3/25" indicating a triple weight and thus a triple rate letter at the 25 centimes UPU rate. In this case the 25 is implicit. The Australian monetary system had previously been pegged with the English monetary system, thus an Australian penny was the equivalent of an English penny. So a triple rate UPU letter would have cost 3 x 2½p or 7½p. The sender had used 4p, making it short 3½p. This is the equivalent of 7 cents US. It is likely that the US clerk made the dark violet notation "T 7 c" and what looks like initials at left. Using that as a basis, he doubled it per UPU rules to arrive at 14 cents due. The "70 CTMS T" was likely applied by the Australian clerk actually calculating the amount due, which was not done in earlier years. We can calculate the amount short in centimes as 3½p is equal to 35 centimes, which of course doubled yields the "70" in light blue crayon. In earlier years the clerk would have just indicated the shortage and the destination exchange office clerk would calculate the penalty.

Parcel Post, 1913, 3¢ Railway Postal Clerk, block of four , used with 2¢ shield (319) , all tied by "Detroit Mich. May 30, 1915" duplexes on special delivery cover to Saginaw, Mich. purple "Special Delivery" straightline, Saginaw (5.29) arrival backstamp, F.-V.F. and scarce use of Parcel Post block.

Scott No. Q3   ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦  Estimate $50 - 75.