Guatemala 1881 5c Small Quetzal Tied To A Diligencia (Stagecoach) Cover

This is a cover I recently acquired.
Diligencia or 'stagecoach' in English, was the major public transportation before the introduction of railroads. In the US history, Wells Fargo Stagecoach started business in 1852, carrying passengers, goods, parcels and mails. U.S. government required that the letters transmitted by prive carriers must be franked with proper U.S, postage stamps. This also happened in Guatemala that on October 27, 1881, all diigencia companies were notified by the Director General of the postal administration that the diligencias could only accept letters and printed matter from the public with stamps attached and the stamps were to be canceled by the diligencia company's handstamps. The cover presented here is one of only two known diligencia covers franked by a stamp canceled by a diligencia company handstamp. The 5c Small Quetzal on a mourning cover sent to Antigua is tied to by an oval "*DILIGENCIAS*/DE/VAZQUEZ-UBICO" company handstamp.

Good find.

This is the scan of the other diligencia cover in the incredible Dr. Arthur Woo's bird collection in Hong Kong. (Courtesy of Brian Moorhouse)