Lot Details

42L1, City Dispatch, St. Louis, MO, 1851 2c Black on Blue, manuscript "T & Co." written on either side of "2", used on local cover, manuscript "At Mo Hotel" at lower left, enclosure with Valentine verse, according to certificate stamp with light creases at top left and bottom left (barely perceptible and a bit harsh in our opinion) and cover with small stains, very fine, the only known cover with the St. Louis City Dispatch 2c stamp (an off-cover single is also known), not only one of the most outstanding local covers in existence but one of the world's rarest postage stamps, missing from even the most advanced collections including Caspary, 2022 Philatelic Foundation certificate (Scott $40,000 for off cover, not priced on cover) Much of what is known about this cover comes from Robert A. Siegel's writeups of the off-cover single in the Golden and D.K. Collections. This cover was acquired by C.H. Mekeel in 1903 and sold to Ferrary for $2,435. The cover later passed through the hands of Warren H. Colson who sold it to John R. Boker, Jr. (who also owned the off-cover example). Boker privately sold the cover to Erivan Haub in the early 1970s, while the stamp appeared in a Robson Lowe sale in 1973. For many years the catalogue value for a used single remained at $1,750, until the stamp realized $20,000 hammer in the 1999 Golden sale and $40,000 just four years later as part of the D.K. Collection.