Lot Details

1871, 100 mon blue, plate I, position 2, cut into at right frame, tied by the head section* of large "Yokohama Kensazumi" to the reverse of a cover from Yokohama to Tokyo.

Manuscript dateline "8th month 25th day" of Meiji 5.8.25 (27 September 1872). Vermilion framed "year of the monkey 8th month 25th day / Yokohama postal bureau". Red circular framed hakoba-in "hon" (本) of Honcho letter box. Framed arrival "year of the monkey 8th month 26th day / Tokyo postal bureau", together with framed vermilion Tokyo delivery marking "morning delivery", recorded in use from Meiji 5.5 to 5.9.

A scarce and appealing Yokohama-Tokyo cover, additionally distinguished by the rare Honcho letter box mark and the officially mandated head-section strike of the large Yokohama Kensazumi.

Rate: Within 25 ri distance = 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 three characters removed. This is therefore not an incomplete strike, but the consequence of official regulation.