Auction Detail

143L9, Wells, Fargo & Co., Virginia City Pony Express, 1862-64 25c Red, margins full to just into frameline at top, tied to 3c Pink entire (U35) by blue "Wells Fargo & Co. Sac. Messenger Jan 25" oval, addressed to Virginia City, black printed frank at top, docketing at left, cover barely reduced at right, very fine and rare use of the 25c Red Virginia City Pony Express stamp on a cover from San Francisco to Virginia City (Scott $8,000)

Eagle & Thunderbolts (Boston, MA), 2c Bureau tied by perfect strike of "Boston, Mass Jan 2 5-PM 1895" machine cancel with eagle and thunderbolts killer, cornercard for the National Shoe and Leather Exchange, addressed to Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, extremely fine, a perfect example of the most celebrated machine cancel which Michael Laurence once called in Linn's the "Post Office Mauritius of U.S. machine cancellations" On the afternoon of January 2, 1895, from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m., the eagle and thunderbolt was placed into service in Boston. Produced by the American Postal Machines Company, the stylized eagle and thunderbolt design was essentially an experiment to see whether the public would prefer that design or a waving American flag. The flag won handily, and only about 10,000 pieces of mail were ever cancelled with the eagle and thunderbolt. Only a few complete covers survive today. Articles about the cancel were written by George T. Turner (Bureau Specialist, April 1964) and Robert L. Markovits (Machine Cancel Forum, January 2002).

"Paid 3" in Circle (Hopkinton, NH),crisp strike on 1857 3c Dull red (26) on cover to Hanover Village, New Hampshire, matching "Hopkinton N.H. Apr 30" datestamp, very fine and attractive (Skinner-Eno PM-PNc 17) 

Six-Bar Shield in Eagle (Corry, PA), crisp strike perfectly centered on 1861 3c Rose (65) on cover to Warren, Ohio, "Corry Pa Jul 6" datestamp alongside, attractive "Steam Forge & Iron Works Union Iron Company" cornercard, extremely fine, this early version of the Corry eagle shows every detail, probably the finest example of this popular cancel on cover (S-E PT-E 1)

"A.J" (Brattleboro, VT), two bold strikes in blue tie a pair of 1861 3c Rose (65) to cover to Boston, matching double circle "Brattleboro Vt Oct 8" datestamp, extremely fine, a rare political fancy cancel referring to Andrew Johnson, these strikes appear intermediate between the two designs illustrated in Skinner-Eno (S-E LC-A 2)