The Alyeska Collection of Pony Express continued...

EXTREMELY FINE. A SPECTACULAR WESTBOUND COVER WITH THE RARE NEW YORK OFFICE AND ST. JOSEPH RUNNING PONY HANDSTAMPS. ONLY TWO COVERS ARE RECORDED WITH THIS COMBINATION OF PONY EXPRESS MARKINGS.

Only 21 covers have the St. Joseph Running Pony oval struck on the front, including two in Carmine and four eastbound covers (one of which is badly damaged). Of the 21 covers with the Running Pony oval on the front, eight have New York Pony Express markings--only two of the eight have this distinctive New York office oval with a date, and they are both dated December 11 (FKW Census W28 and W29).

The two December 11 covers were carried on the same trip to two different addresses in San Francisco. They were sent in a package of U.S. mail from New York City to the eastern terminus at St. Joseph. The under-3,000 miles loophole” allowed westbound mail to be sent in bundles from the East Coast with only 3c U.S. postage. This loophole was closed by the Act of February 27, 1861, which eliminated the mileage provision and required 10c on any letter crossing the Rocky Mountains.

This cover and its twin were carried on the westbound trip from St. Joseph, departing Sunday, December 16, and arriving in San Francisco on December 31. According to the Sacramento Daily Union (December 31, at http://www.siegelauctions.com/2013/1038/12_SDU.jpg ), the express passed Placerville on December 30 and carried letter dates to December 14 and telegraph dispatches to Fort Kearney to December 18.

The addressee, Daniel Gibb & Company, was a large merchant firm in San Francisco. Daniel Gibb and his brother William purchased the original lease for the New Idria Quicksilver Mine and brought the mine into successful production in 1858. New Idria quickly became one of the world’s largest mercury mines. The firm’s warehouse at Front and Vallejo Street is a registered historic landmark building.

FKW Census W29. Trip WT-62. Ex Dr. Polland. (Image)

EXTREMELY FINE. AN OUTSTANDING AND VERY RARE EXAMPLE OF THE SHORT-LIVED WELLS, FARGO & COMPANY $2.00 HORSE & RIDER FIRST ISSUE ON COVER. THE SAN FRANCISCO RUNNING PONY OVAL IS SELDOM FOUND STRUCK WITH SUCH CLARITY.

This cover was carried on the Wednesday, June 19, 1861, trip from San Francisco, which arrived at St. Joseph on July 2. The addressee, Henry I. Beers, was a prominent California businessman who returned to New York in 1859 and made his fortune in oil and real estate in Western Pennsylvania.

When Phase II (Interim Phase) started on April 1, 1861, the rate for a Pony Express letter was substantially reduced to $2 per half-ounce, down from the $5 per half-ounce or $2.50 per quarter-ounce rates in effect during the previous year. At the same time, the new agents--Wells, Fargo & Company--had special stamps and envelopes printed for use on Pony Express letters. The $2 rate was in effect for a brief period, from April 1 to June 30, 1861. The FKW census records 37 $2.00 Red covers.

The $2 and $4 were printed in sheets of 20 (5 wide by 4 high). Rather than build up the printing stone from intermediate transfer groups or from a primary matrix containing the denomination, the printers used a blank matrix to enter each subject on the stone for each value. This required a total of 40 transfers (20 for each value). The denomination (shaded numerals 2” and 4”) then had to be individually transferred to each subject on both stones, thus requiring another 40 separate transfers. It seems incredible that experienced lithographers such as Britton & Rey did not simplify the process by using intermediate transfers. Based on the fact that the $2 and $4 of the July 1861 issue (in Green and Black) were printed from the same stones as the April 1861 issue, it is certain that the printers had retained the two original stones. Lithographic stones were usually re-used by erasing the image and repolishing the surface, but in the case of the Pony Express stones, they were evidently preserved for future printings.

FKW Census E100. Trip ET-110. Illustrated in Nathan-Boggs book (p. 42). Ex Dr. Polland. (Image)

EXTREMELY FINE. A BEAUTIFUL EASTBOUND PONY EXPRESS COVER WITH THE WELLS, FARGO & COMPANY $1.00 HORSE & RIDER SECOND ISSUE AND POSTMARK SHOWING ENTRY INTO THE MAILS AT THE ATCHISON POST OFFICE.

This cover was carried on the trip that departed San Francisco on Saturday, September 28, 1861, and arrived at Atchison on October 12. The Pony Express stamp pays the government contract rate of $1 per half-ounce, and the shift to Atchison as the point of entry into the U.S. mails was due to Confederate military incursions into central Missouri in September 1861.

Congress awarded the mail contract along the Central Route to the Overland Mail Company on March 12, 1861, effective July 1. The contract paid $1,000,000 per year for mail/passenger service along the Central Route and required the company ...during the continuance of their Contract, or until completion of The Overland telegraph, to run a Pony Express semi-weekly at a Schedule time of ten days eight months of the year and twelve days four months of the year...” This period of operation is known as Phase III, which corresponds to Rate Period 4 (July 1-October 26, 1861). During this period, Wells, Fargo & Co. issued new stamps and envelopes to reflect the agreed-upon government contract rate of $1 per half-ounce for the Pony Express. In addition, Wells, Fargo & Co. charged a fee for service in California (10c if a franked envelope was used, 25c if not) and U.S. postage (10c per half-ounce).

On September 3, 1861, the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad experienced a horrific tragedy when bushwhackers burned a bridge over the Platte River, causing a derailment that killed between 17 and 20 people and injured 100 more in the Platte Bridge Railroad Tragedy” (this bridge should not be confused with the Platte River Bridge in Wyoming). Starting with the Pony Express mail that left San Francisco on September 11, 1861 (ET-134, arriving September 23), the entry point for mail became Atchison. The FKW census records 25 covers, including one with the Pony Express stamp missing.

The addressee, Robert E. Dietz (1818-1897), started an oil lamp business in Brooklyn in 1840. When kerosene distilled from coal oil went into mass production in 1856, Dietz patented a burner designed to burn the new fuel in lamps. Dietz & Co. supplied mining camps in California.

FKW Census E167. Trip ET-139. With 1973 P.F. certificate. (Image)

AN EXTREMELY FINE REBACKED FRONT WITH ALL OF THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF AN EASTBOUND PONY EXPRESS USE INTACT, INCLUDING THE WELLS, FARGO & COMPANY $1.00 HORSE & RIDER STAMP TIED BY THE SAN FRANCISCO RUNNING PONY OVAL.

This cover was carried on the trip that departed San Francisco on Saturday, August 24, 1861, and arrived at St. Joseph on September 5. The addressee, W. J. Widdleton, was a New York City publisher. In 1861 Widdleton acquired the rights to publish the collected works of the late Edgar Allan Poe.

Congress awarded the mail contract along the Central Route to the Overland Mail Company on March 12, 1861, effective July 1. The contract paid $1,000,000 per year for mail/passenger service along the Central Route and required the company ...during the continuance of their Contract, or until completion of The Overland telegraph, to run a Pony Express semi-weekly at a Schedule time of ten days eight months of the year and twelve days four months of the year...” This period of operation is known as Phase III, which corresponds to Rate Period 4 (July 1- October 26, 1861). During this period, Wells, Fargo & Co. issued new stamps and envelopes to reflect the agreedupon government contract rate of $1 per half-ounce for the Pony Express. In addition, Wells, Fargo & Co. charged a fee for service in California (represented by the red frank) and U.S. postage (10c per half-ounce).

FKW Census E146. Trip ET-129. With 1976 P.F. certificate. (Image)

FINE APPEARANCE. ONE OF FIVE RECORDED USED EXAMPLES OF THE $4.00 BLACK PONY EXPRESS STAMP.

Only two covers with the $4.00 Black (Second Issue) are recorded, each worth more than a half-million dollars. (Image)

VERY FINE. ONE OF 21 RECORDED TYPE II EAST-TO-WEST PONY EXPRESS ENTIRES AND THE ONLY PONY EXPRESS COVER ORIGINATING IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSSETTS.

In Rate Period 3, Wells Fargo & Co. introduced a special franked envelope for westbound mail, but its use was extremely limited. On July 1, 1861, the new contract rate went into effect. On August 12, 1861, Wells Fargo & Co. announced in the New York papers that Pony Express Envelopes” were Now ready and for sale at our office.” Although this announcement refers only to envelopes,” in fact both the franked entires and $1.00 adhesive stamps were put on sale in August 1861. The 1861 10c Pumpkin” entire with the Type II printed frank was ordered from George F. Nesbitt & Co. (New York) by the Overland Mail Company after they obtained approval for the design and imprint from the Postmaster General’s office. The earliest recorded Type II envelope is dated August 14, 1861, according to the FKW census.

Based on a newspaper article in the San Francisco Bulletin (September 13, 1861, at http://www.siegelauctions.com/2013/1038/20_SFB.jpg ), the Type II franked envelopes were problematic, because eastern post offices were sending them in the through” mail to San Francisco, instead of directing them to St. Joseph for the Pony Express. As a result, they would arrive by regular mail ten days after the Pony Express for which they were intended. This might explain why some examples of the Type II franks are found without a St. Joseph Pony Express handstamp.

This August 28, 1861, cover was sent from Cambridge just as Civil War demonetization of the old stamp issue began and the new 1861 Issue was released. It entered the post office and was treated as regular mail until it reached the Wells, Fargo & Co. agent at St. Joseph. From there it made the September 5 westbound Pony trip to California. At Placerville, it was carried by Wells Fargo & Co. to Sacramento on September 16. The addressee, William E. Chamberlain (1801- 1896), was the cashier of the D. O. Mills bank in Sacramento and later worked for the National Gold Bank. His wife Charlotte was a contributing writer for the Sacramento Daily Union.

The updated FKW census lists 21 examples of the Type II $1.00 frank, including some that have stamps added or have been extensively repaired. This is the only Pony Express cover that originated from Cambridge, Massachusetts, during any time period, and of course it is the only example of the Type II frank used from Cambridge.

FKW Census W54. Trip WT-137. Weill backstamp. (Image)

VERY FINE COVER WITH A CLEAR STRIKE OF THE ST. JOSEPH SPECIAL PONY EXPRESS” DATESTAMP AND FREE FRANK OF SENATOR LATHAM. ONE OF SIX RECORDED PONY EXPRESS COVERS FRANKED BY LATHAM--THIS IS THE ONLY ONE WITH THE WELLS, FARGO & COMPANY FREE” HANDSTAMP.

Senator Milton S. Latham went to California in 1850 and was elected to Congress on the 1852 Democratic ticket. After his term expired, he declined to run for re-election and served as collector for the port of San Francisco. In 1859 he was elected governor, but he resigned five days after taking office to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant when Senator David C. Broderick was killed in a duel. The addressee, George Wallace, was secretary to California governor, John Downey.

Senator Latham was a friend of William H. Russell, the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Co. president, and a strong supporter of COC&PP in their effort to secure the contract for the Central Route. He was among the few individuals later permitted to send Pony Express letters free of charge. In this case Senator Latham’s free frank applied to the $1.00 Pony Express rate, Wells, Fargo & Co.’s 10c charge for service between Placerville and San Francisco, and 10c U.S. postage (for a total of $1.20). This cover left St. Joseph on Sunday, October 13, 1861, and arrived at San Francisco on October 25. This was one of the latest Pony Express trips.

There are 15 recorded Pony Express covers with any form of free frank for postage or express charges. Of these, six are signed by Latham (FKW E94, W3, W5, W7, W48 and W62). The eastbound cover (E94) has the San Francisco Running Pony oval. Three of the westbound Latham covers have the St. Joseph Running Pony oval (W3, W5 and W7), and two have the oval within circle datestamp (W48 and W62). The cover offered here is the latest of the Latham covers, and it is the only Pony Express cover with a Wells, Fargo & Co. Free” marking.

FKW Census W62. Trip WT-148. Illustrated in The Pony Express: A Postal History (p. 53). (Image)