H. R. Hammer is going to auction the third part of The "ERIVAN" Collection of United and Confederate States on August 6-7. This sale will offer to collectors’ attention the only complete example of the 1846 5¢ red on buff postmaster’s provisional stamp from Lockport, N.Y. The stamp in on a folded letter mailed to Geneva, N.Y., in 1846. This lot is listed in the H.R. Harmer sale with a starting price of $100,000.
The folded letter franked with the intact stamp was reused after mailing, returning it to Lockport. It was discovered near the end of the 19th century by a collector named M.H. Hoover. The auction house gives the following description for this lot: “Extremely Fine, the only complete example of this famous stamp on- or off-cover, and as such one of the greatest rarities in all of American philately, a true icon which ranks alongside other uniquities such as the Alexandria "Blue Boy," the Boscawen provisional, the "Large Beaumont" Confederate provisional, and the Dawson cover, offered publicly for the first time in over 30 years, signed "RHW Co" and 1989 Philatelic Foundation certificate”.
This cover is amongst the most celebrated and prized covers in philately. It has succeeded to avoid falling the victim to destruction over the decades.
