Lot 10019 – 20pa Blue, perforation 12½, tied on small neat envelope from Cairo to Assiut in Upper Egypt

20pa Blue, perforation 12½, tied on small neat envelope from Cairo to Assiut in Upper Egypt, by POSTE VICE-REALI EGIZIANE / CAIRO cds in black, very fine and an extremely rare single franking.

An important and extremely rare usage.

Provenance: Peter Smith.

Note: The single rate was normally 1 piastre between any of the sixteen or so Vice -Royal Post Office open in Egypt at the time, mails to town on the Nile in Upper Egypt were charged according to distance in weight stages at 1 dirhem = approximately three grammes and was conveyed by the Mohammed Ali State Courier Post.