STAMPLESS COVERS OF GREAT BRITAIN

1790 SCARCE SHORT PAID LONDON PHILADEPHIA MIXED FRANK
 AN UNUSUAL COVER WITH CHALLENGING MARKS THAT SHOWS
 BOTH BRITISH AND AMERICAN RATING MARKS

An Extremely fine cover showing a challenging "Post Paid" cancel (more on which below) as well as a manuscript in red 1N7, 1 shilling 7d, consisting of the inland rate of 6d from London to Falmouth (packet port) + 1d ship charge + 1 shilling for the Trans-Atlantic carriage which was prepaid as required by General Post Office Notice of 22 May 1785 because of "difficulties having arisen in the collection of the packet postage in North America". Hence the red prepaid 1N7.

In addition the cover shows the "1.8" American rating. This means "1 pennyweight and 8grains". Translated this is 4d in sterling. Note on pennyweights: A pennyweight (1dwt) is 5/90ths or 1/18th of a Spanish Silver Dollar (the legendary "piece of eight" reales) which was the equivalent to 3d sterling per 1dwt (Spanish Dollar had a standard value of 4sh/6d or 54d). There were also 24 grains to the pennyweight, so .8 dwt was 1/3 of 3d or 1d. So the 1.8dwt rate on the cover equates to 4 pence sterling which was the American inland rate from New York (where the packet landed) and Philadelphia (60 to 100 miles). On February 20, 1792 the US moved to the decimal cents and dollars currency system. An extremely nice cover. See below for more details and the conundrum. Enjoy.

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 Post Paid cancel


Reverse of Cover

Philadelphia Cancel

Measures 28mm diameter
Word width 22 mm
Letter 6mm in height

Halifax Cancel

London General Post Office Date
Stamp February 3, 1790
Jay Type L-5b

British Cancel

Manuscript 1N7 or 1 shilling
 and 7 pence for the British inland,
ship and packet rate

Philadelphia Cancel

Last Known use late 1774
Philadelphia Cancel from
American Stampless Cover
Catalogue 1997

Halifax Cancel

Known In Use 1790-1792
From Boggs The Postage Stamps  and Postal History of Canada 1975

British Cancel

Known in Use 1766-1791
From The British County
Catalogue by Barrie Jay 2005

Here's the Challenge - There are thee candidates for the "POST/PAID" in circle cancel on the cover and they all have their plusses and minuses. First candidate is the Philadelphia Cancel but its last known use was in late 1774. While it superficially appears to be the best physical match, it would have had to have been pulled out of a drawer for temporary use and is known in red. This could be a faded red but not likely. The second candidate is the scarce Halifax, Nova Scotia brown-red POST/PAID in circle canx [Boggs type H1]. This is known in use in the 1790-1792 period however, there is no other confirmation that the ship stopped in Halifax. Arnell in his epic Trans-Atlantic shipping compendium unfortunately does not provide packet sailings for 1790 which would help to place it in Halifax. The third and most likely candidate is the "POST/PAID" stamp used in London [Barrie Jay Type L-91]. This stamp was in use from 1766-1791 and Jay notes, "The claret and blackish-purple inks used for the later strikes of L91 were water based, in contrast to the red ink which was oil based." This ink does exhibit a red-brown/claret color, but Barrie goes on to state the claret color to only be known in 1791, but the purplish cancel was known in 1790. There is also Jay's note that the particular backstamp of this cover, the London type L-5b, is known on covers with the Type 91 Post Paid Cancel. The problem is that the lettering does not match well unless it is considered that this late in the life of the handstamp it had worn down considerably. So it is either a last known use of a very rare Philadelphia cancel, a scarce Halifax Ship Cancel or possibly an earliest know use of the claret London cancel. In the event it is an interesting conundrum and I leave it to you. One thing that is for certain is that most letters of this day were sent postage due from the recipient. As Barrie says, "The majority of early letters were unpaid, although prepayment was allowed. This accounts for the relative scarcity of the "Paid" handstamps as compared with the unpaid." and thus a "Post Paid" ship cover in itself is a "relative scarcity".

Front:  Ship cover with manuscript "1.8" American rating meaning 1dwt (pennyweight) + 8 grains (of silver) for the US delivery costs + red manuscript 1n7 (1 shilling and 7 pence) which was the prepaid packet rate to North America (red British rate markings generally indicated paid or prepaid postage). It should be noted that many "black" inks morph over time due to time and exposure and exhibit this brownish cast.
Reverse:  Claret/purple London double circle (but called single ring) b/s "FE 3 90" [Jay Type 5b purple from 1790]  Penciled lotting and date marks.
Notes: Letter likely traveled on a British Falmouth mail packet to New York, possibly through Halifax where it might have received the POST PAID canx. The British General Post Office instituted a regular mail packet to Halifax in 1787.
Condition: Very Fine with usual file folds.
Contents: Legible English - Dateline 30 January 1790 - Fairly standard merchant accounts letter from DeMierre & Co in London to Andrew Clow & Co. in Philadelphia. Discusses account irregularities and mentions two ships, the Brig Trinidad  and the Jenny Tillingham.

Please note that stampless cover catalogue numbers and research come from some of the following reference works:  Robinson, The Port and Carriage of Letters, Inland & Foreign Rates of the British Isles; R. M. Willcocks, England's Postal History to 1840 with Notes on Scotland, Wales and Ireland (1975); R. M. Willcocks & Barrie Jay, The Postal History of Great Britain and Ireland 1981; Willcocks & Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History - Volumes 1 & 2, 2nd Ed. (1996); Barrie Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History Volume 3 London, 2nd Ed.(2005); Willcocks & Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History - Vol 4 (1988), Willcocks & Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History - Volume 5 (1990); American Stampless Cover Catalogue 2nd Ed. (1997); J.C. Arnell, Atlantic Mails - A History of the Mail Service between Great Britain and Canada to 1889 (1980); F. Jarrett, Stamps of British North America; W. S. Boggs, The Postage Stamps and Postal History of Canada; Hargest, History of Letter Communications between US and Europe 1845-1874, Starnes, US Letter Rates to Foreign Destination 1847-GPU; Tabeart, United Kingdom Letter Rates 1657-1900; Moubray, British Letter Mail to Overseas Destinations 1840-1875, J.J. MacDonald, The Nova Scotia Post, Its Offices, Masters and Marks (1985)

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