Lot 30280 – 1875, treaty port cover: 4 sen deep grey-green “butchi” on inland cover with foreign-mail cancel

1875, 4 sen deep grey-green, crossed branches “butchi”, used on double weight folded wrapper from Nagasaki to Yokohama, carried by ship as treaty port mail, sent by L. Kniffler & Co. to its Yokohama branch, tied by large “Nagasaki Sep 23 2 P.M.” cds, with framed vermillion “PAID ALL” circle, backstamped with “Yokohama Paid All Sep 28” cds in red. Small surface scuff in upper left corner of the stamp and rough separation at right. A very clean and fresh cover. (JHES ¥350,000).

An extremely rare example of a Roman-Letter postmark on a domestic mail, as this type, according to the postal rules, had to be applied on mail sent abroad only.

Provenance: Michael Eugene Ruggiero (Dynasty Auctions, 13.4.2014, lot 2872)