Lot
88 
Fair Play Col. Aug 13, 1866, manuscript postmark on a very puzzling cover to France with a rare territorial use of a 2¢ "Black Jack" plus two 3¢ rose adhesives for a total of eight cents, exchanged via Chicago, where two of the stamps were correctly overstruck with the oblong "Short Paid" handstamp (the correct rate to France was 15¢, with prepayment optional), inexplicably, the Chicago office also applied the circular red "Chicago Ill./Paid 12", presumably intended as a credit to France, even though the cover was not prepaid, based on this marking, the French accepted the cover as paid to destination (boxed PD), the other French marking is the "Etats-Unis, Serv. Brit., Amb. Calais" commonly found on such mail, some docketing on face, Very Fine, a wonderful Territorial cover to an Overseas destination, illustrated in Jarrett's Colorado book. Estimate $750 - 1,000.
Our best explanation is this: The "Paid 12" handstamp was applied by the Chicago office before the short payment was noticed. It should have been canceled at the same time the "Short Paid" was applied, but this was overlooked - a surprisingly rare example of an uncorrected error by an exchange office.
Realized: $1,100