Lot Details

1872, 1/2 sen brown, plate II, vertical pair, positions 10-18, tied by the head section* of large "Yokohama Kensazumi" to the reverse of a cover from Yokohama to Tokyo.

Manuscript dateline "9th month 2nd day". Vermilion framed non-standard "year of the monkey 9th month 2nd day / Yokohama postal bureau" (4 October 1872). Red circular framed hakoba-in "hon" (本) of Honcho letter box. Framed same-day arrival "year of the monkey 9th month 2nd day / Tokyo postal bureau", together with framed vermilion Tokyo delivery marking "midday delivery", recorded from Meiji 5.5 to 5.9.

A scarce and attractive Yokohama-Tokyo cover, distinguished by the officially regulated head-portion strike and the Honcho letter box mark.

Rate: Within 25 ri = 1 sen, second rate period.

Note: *Head section: the "large placename Kensazumi" postmarks were officially ordered in Meiji 4.12 to be struck with the placename head section only, or even with the lower characters removed. This is therefore not an incomplete strike, but the consequence of official regulation.