Auction 321 - 332 Romania – Special Catalogue, Worldwide Rarities – The ERIVAN Collection – 2nd Auction, Schweiz & Liechtenstein - Day 5

Colony of Canada 1851: 12 pence black, deep fresh colour and good even margins, used with central clear target on entire letter with frontside despatch mark "HAMILTON JY 19 1852" to New York, with adjacent red "CANADA PAID 20 Cts", the stamp with slightest traces of pressed creasing at top, otherwise extremely fine, the cover remarkably fresh, described in the sale of the Weill Brothers' stock as ".. the finest recorded example of the 12 pence on cover." One of the major rarities of British North American Philately. Cert. BPA (2020)rnNote: Charles Firby and George Arfken, writing in BNA Topics ("The Twelve-Penny Black Covers", 2009, Vol. 66, No. 4) note eight genuine examples of the 12d. on cover; one is in the collection of H.M. King Charles III, and two others - an 1853 cover to New York, and a domestic usage within Canada (ex Brouse) - have not been recorded since 1911 and 1925 respectively. The example offered here is the earliest recorded usage of the 12d. black on cover to the United States, and if the Brouse cover is omitted, given its disputed 1852 usage, may be the earliest recorded example of any 12d. usage on cover.rnReference: Illustrated in Winthrop S. Boggs "The Postage Stamps and Postal History of Canada", p. 137rnProvenance: Alfred F. Lichtenstein, Dr. G. M. Geldert (H R Harmer 1968), Weill Brothers (Christie's 1989), "Foxbridge"rnrn