Does This Solo Scott 831 Bring Any Additional Value To This First Flight Cover?

I see solo usage for this stamp commands a premium, but on a first flight cover?

Prexie solo usages generally must pay a rate exactly. Even certain FDC with a solo paying a proper scarce rate and actually carried at that rate in the mails trade for the solo, not FDC rate.

The 10 coil Prexie solo on a first flight cover carries a hefty premium over the common FFC value. It was FAM 18 used from NYC, NY to Botwood, Newfoundland, which carried a postage rate of 10 cents for that portion of the flight.

I will post now and get back later with an illustration of the 10 cent item:

https://www.usstamps.org/wp-content...10-2019F.pdf page 306

The rate seems to have been 50¢. Interesting to have it as a single.


http://www.nzstamps.org.uk/air/panam/tonz40.html

yes but this paid the proper rate I checked all the other first flight covers to this location and they added to 50 cents.

You checked all 16275 pieces on that flight?
Just kidding.
If it turns out to be the only prexie on the flight then good deal.

Right person, right place, right time, you'll see your premium.
Good luck,
Pat

Valuing postal history is an art. The Scott catalog gives values for several representative commercial solo uses. Their starting point (2017 edition) would be in the $50-60 range for solo commercial airmail uses to southeast Asia.

Also as Patg23 notes, The American Airmail Society catalog (6th ed, v3) notes 16,275 pieces flown and a general value of $3.00, which could also be used as a starting point for estimating a retail value. No doubt quite a few of these were franked with solo Tafts.

Using either starting point, one might add or subtract for special circumstances. Unfortunately, being a contrived philatelic first flight cover, with cachet struck over the address, and with significant damage and seam-glue stains would decrease the retail value significantly. It just lacks eye appeal. It would not be in "exhibitable" quality. I would expect a retail value to be much closer to the AAMS catalog than Scott.

As a tangent, consider this domestic solo use dated April 28, 1956:


0.03 first class letter
0.07 return receipt fee
0.40 registry fee for up to and including $5 indemnity.
0.50 total paid with solo use.
Scott does not have a specific domestic solo use listed, other than "on cover" at $10 which would be expected to be with other stamps. Perhaps not as sexy as a foreign destination and on a legal sized envelope, but it is a commercial, non-philatelic use. Definitely an art!

Actually the 10 cent solo prexie first flight cover I referenced did occupy space in a multi-gold winning Prexie rate exhibit which also picked up a few more golds after the AAPE Diamond award.

Only the NYC-Botwood in the USA to Europe (east trip) qualified for 10 cents US Airmail rate. So far, that is the only one which has made its way to the Prexie Solo Collectors ( as such being included in the Prexie Era specialty newsletter).. Of further interest, it was not a true first flight, it was an only flight, as rather it took a unique route due to the quantity of mail being carried. One stop for just that first eastward trip was at a different Canadian airport with a larger post office to handle the cancelling of mail in the volume expected. It is a noteworthy use due to outright scarcity of solo 10 cent coil covers. Now that said, while trading for a hefty three figure price, that was lower than the other non-FFC 10 cent coil solos which can hit four figures.

For additional multiple examples of 50 cent Prexies usages see Hal Klein's exhibit (you can navigate forward/backward using arrows on either side of screen)
https://stampsmarter.org/learning/a...l#gallery-32

Entire Prexies usage exhibit
https://stampsmarter.org/learning/a...ie_home.html
Don

Hi Pat, LOL! No what I meant was the rate on the rest of these first flight covers to Auckland that I saw, was 50 cents. I don't know how many, if any, were sent with solo prexies.

Thanks Don! Nice exhibit

ppg,
With all due respect, the 10 cent prexie coil is an outlier for value and rarity when the original question is about the 50 cent Taft stamp. There is very little comparison.
That said, if you were a retail dealer, what price would you put on the Taft flight cover?

I have another question. was there commercial mail on these first flights or were they all philatelic? And did they all get the cachet?

In general, first flight cover collectors prefer to have airmail stamps on airmail covers, and in this case the C22 50 cent transpacific flight stamp, or even a pair of the 25 cent C20 transpacific flight stamps. Second choice for most first fligh cover collectors would be other airmail stamps making up the 50 cent rate. Most first flight cover collectors pay less for first flights with non-airmail stamps such as this 50 cent prexie. And since the first flight cover itself is of such minimal value, the desirability of such a cover without airmail stamps means that most first flight cover collectors would not be very interested in buying such a cover. The main interest in buying it would be someone who wants a 50 cent prexie correctly used on a piece of actual mail which first flight covers are. As to whether there was commercial mail on this flight the answer is generally yes and the illustrated prexie cover could easily be considered to be commercial since it is one way to a legitimate address in the country to which it is sent and it does not have airmail stamps on it. So far as I know, everything that went on that first flight received the cachet since it was an enormous accomplishment to extend US mail service expedited by carriage in a US Post Office contracted carrier such a long distance.