Lot 61169 – 1919, 3c Red Brown, Hawker Air Post, very well-centered, tied by machine cancel on cover

1919, 3c Red Brown, Hawker Air Post, very well-centered, tied by « St. John’s Nfld. Apr. 12, 1919 2-PM » machine cancel on cover addressed to Sir Edgar Bowring, High Commissioner for Newfoundland, London, England, typed « PER AEROPLANE POST », reverse with « Found open and officially secured » label cancelled by London circular datestamp, the stamp has been lifted and replaced to the original position (likely due to water damage from flight). Very fine, desirable and exceedingly rare Newfoundland Air Post issue, cert. P.F. (1981) (Scott $25’000, Unitrade C$35’000). Only 95 stamps were used and fewer still are known on flight covers.

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Note: This flight famously ended with a controlled crash landing in the ocean after about 13 hours of flying. Postmaster J.A. Robinson of St. John’s overprinted 200 stamps for the special flight. No more than 87 unused stamps can still exist, though the actual number of surviving examples is much lower. Of the 200 printed, 95 were used and 18 were defective and subsequently destroyed.