Lot 30194 – 1858 cover sent locally within Christiania, bearing a vertically bisected 1856 Oscar 4 skilling blue

1858 the exceptional cover sent locally within Christiania, bearing a bisected copy of the 1856 4 skilling Oscar blue, ideally cancelled and tied to cover (to the right and left) with numeral cancellation 364 of Christiania Bypost, paying the local letter rate of 2 skilling. Alongside is ideally struck and very sharp “Christiania Bypost 5.3.1858 in red colour. Letter sent to “Rigsarkivar Lange in Schultzhaugen”, located to the north of Christiania centre.

The only recorded genuine cover with bisected 4 skilling and one of the major rarities of Norwegian philately; a few weeks after this cover was sent (March 28th 1858) the Norwegian Post Office published a circular declaring the use of bisects illegal.

Note: Illustrated in Georg Stormer’s « Norwegian Classics » p.45, as one of the top rarities of Norway.



Expertise: Cert. Finn Aune, F.C. Moldenhauer (copy), Scheller (2024).

Provenance: Rothschild collection (1981), Bernt Fossum (2003).