Lot 477
1870, 24¢ purple (153), single tied by segmented cork cancel on 3¢ green entire to New York, 3¢ with matching cancel, clear "Battle Creek Mich. Mar. 27" c.d.s., manuscript "Forwarded to Hong Kong, China British mail via Southampton" in the sender's hand, three pen strokes deleting original address (included one also tying the 24¢) and manuscript "Hong Kong/ China" in someone else's hand, clear "New York Apr. 14" c.d.s. and red Apr. 16 exchange c.d.s. with "24" credit and London transit, large "Unclaimed" written vertically at left and red crayon "1d", reverse with June 1873 Hong-Kong Marine-Sorter postmark and an additional Hong Kong postmark dated Jan. 12, 1874, original 1873 enclosure from Battle Creek sheds some light on this peculiar usage: "The news that this missive contains will probably be stale enough by the time it reaches you for I am going to try and send it around the world I think I shall succeed in my undertaking if some good American in China will have the kindness to forward it to the address which I will give in full on the last page of this sheet. If there should be such a thing as a dead-letter office in China this will probably arrive at Laramie all right" (the address Laramie City, Wyoming Terr.); entire with small opening tears at top and piece out of indicia, stamp with small corner crease, otherwise Fine.
Estimate 750 - 1,000
PROBABLY A UNIQUE USE OF THE 24¢ BANK NOTE AND ONE OF THE EARLIEST DOCUMENTED AROUND-THE-WORLD USAGES.
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| Realized $850 |
