Newfoundland Cover From 1881

Here is a new find for me--just sharing and hope that someone out there has some tangent or similar item to add.

This envelope was mailed March 22,1881 from St Johns to London. A very hard to find roulette 2 cent stamp (#38 Unitrade) and #49 to get the Transatlantic rate with matching cork cancels. Part of so called "Bernardy Brothers" correspondence from the era.

The back was pretty trashed but I really needed this one to fill in the #38 spot in my album.

Enjoy

Just label it "with distressed back" and you can double the value. That's the way they do it with antique furniture.

What a nice little cover!

The cancel makes this the "Black-eye Queen" variety!

Nice cover.

Regards,
Stampalotapus

Tommy - Beautiful cover !! That rouletted stamp catalogs $500 on cover so I wouldn't remove it from the cover. The 3c QV also catalogs $200 on cover so quite a good value for these stamps on cover. Also a Transatlantic cover which is more desirable. If you get some dates off the cover you can find out what ship it sailed on.

I don't have any Newfoundland covers but I do have some Nova Scotia. Here is one of my fav's. Doesn't appear to be much but the double rate crossborder covers from Nova Scotia are good enough to make a single Auction Lot. This one came from the Dale-Lichtenstein collection and came with the actual Lot Card from the Harmer's Sale in 1968.

I actually think your cover would sell for just as much as this one or more.

Thanks for the comments. A "distressed black eye queen" indeed!

JimJung - thank you for sharing your cover. I don't collect NS, but I admire your beauty and to have the Harmer lot # is cool. I keep all the provenance of all my covers including the auction lot or whatever I have.

The cover that I shared is worth more than you touch upon. According to Walsh's NSSC, and Sammy Whaley's research--there are only 11 covers known to exist with this stamp and the value is listed in NSSC from recent auctions at $1,260--but who knows really when you are dealing with a small supply like 11 covers from 1879. More granularly, this cover's destination is unique and of the 11 covers, there are only 2 that went to International destinations--this one to London and one to Constantinople (any one out there want to share it?)

I would never remove a stamp from a cover--it not only runs against my grain, it is a sure way to destroy value. Case in point--this stamp #38 used goes for $35 or so.