Lot Details

69L4, Frazer & Co., Cincinnati, OH, 1845 2c Black on Yellow, single with manuscript cancel on 1848 folded letter to Philadelphia, red Cincinnati postmark with integral "10" rate, stamp with small tear at top center, cover with light creases, very fine appearance, when this cover was offered in our 1957 sale of the Caspary Collection it was stated that this stamp did not originate, the 2022 Philatelic Foundation certificate takes the opposite position and therefore this cover is being offered on its own merits, regardless there are only six examples of this stamp recorded so it is a great rarity in either case, 2022 Philatelic Foundation certificate as genuine usage (Scott $7,000 for tied on cover, $2,500 for used single) It was proposed in a Robson Lowe auction catalogue in 1973 that the four colors of Frazer stamps denoted different types of mail: local mail (green), out of town unpaid (pink), out of town paid (yellow), and incoming (grayish). Robert B. Meyersburg's "Frazer & Company City Despatch/ Express Post" (Penny Post Vol. 2, No. 3) put this theory to the test but found that ultimately the sample size was too small to draw any conclusions from. Provenance: Alfred H. Caspary (H.R. Harmer Sale 1071, 1957)