Lot 2529
Hawaii 1853, 5¢ blue, thick white paper (5), on small piece with two diagonal bisects of the U.S. 12¢ black (17) fitted together to make a whole stamp, each stamp with full margins, the 5¢ with red "Honolulu/U.S. Postage Paid" c.d.s. and the whole tied together by a Feb 20 San Francisco c.d.s. Very Fine.
Estimate 2,000 - 3,000
Expertization: 1967 P.F. Certificate, illustrated in Meyer-Harris, p.44.
Provenance: Plass, Pietsch
The speculation in Meyer-Harris is as follows: "The Honolulu post office had some splits left over which they could not use because of the Postmaster General's order of November 10, 1853. They carried them on books as a dead asset until April 1, 1855, when the new 10¢ rate for cross-country letters to the eastern states, plus the 2¢ ship fee, made the 12¢ stamps a useful denomination. They then used up the balance remaining by placing them thus together to represent the whole stamps. The number of splits used in this way cannot have been large, ore we would have heard of more of them.
The letter to which these stamps were affixed left Honolulu on January 21, 1857, by the bark FANNY MAJOR. It arrived in San Francisco February 6, 1857, and had to lie over until February 20 for a ship carrying eastbound mail via Panama."
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| Realized $2,000 |
