Lot 30088 – 1872, 1 sen blue plate 1, pos. 16, on cover

1872, 1 sen deep dull blue, plate 1, position 16, an outstanding example with sheet margin at right, better centring than usual, tied by framed non-standard “Ken” cancel of Tokyo in blue to local cover front, showing black “Shiba Mishima Kariyakusho” (Shiba Mishima temporary branch office) postmark alongside, together with Tokyo datestamp in blue reading “(year of) Water Monkey (Meiji 5)”, as well as framed “Afternoon Delivery” handstamp in red confirming the Tokyo inner-city delivery, all these postmarks being partly struck. Cert. Florian Eichhorn BPP (2023).

At most ten covers bearing this stamp are believed to exist (only six according to Yamada), irrefutably being the scarcest “Dragon” stamp on cover after the 500 mon plate 2. This example is further enhanced by being one of two recorded covers with the Shiba-Mishima postmark (unique in private hands). (JSCA for complete cover ¥3,500,000).

Note: The 1 sen postage paid the double inner-city tariff (1/2 sen for each 2 momme), which was introduced in Tokyo on Meiji 5.3.1 (8 April 1872). Shiba-Mishima was a temporary branch of Tokyo Shibaguchi. This cover can be dated in the 7th or 8th Moon, as the “Shiba-Mishima” temporary branch post office was only opened at this location during these two months. The other cover recorded with Shiba-Mishima postmark is located in the Mitsui Bunko Foundation Museum (see “Mails in the 19th century” by Tejima-Sawa-Asami on pages 112-113, fig. 136).