Lot
613 
1851 (Jul. 14) San Francisco, Cal. to Le Havre, France, folded letter endorsed "Per Steamer via Panama", red "San Francisco Cal. 15 Jul" cds and matching "Paid" and "22" rating handstamps, carried by Havre Line Humboldt from New York Aug. 23 to Havre arriving Sep. 4, red Le Havre (9.4) entry cds and manuscript "6" décimes postage due rating, Very Fine, one of only five recorded examples of this 22¢ error rate. Estimate $1,500 - 2,000.
The San Francisco postmaster didn't understand the July 1851 rate change. On mail to France he calculated the new British open mail rate by American packet as 22¢ (6¢ inland paid rate plus 16¢ sea postage). On mail to the U.K. he calculated the rate as 25¢ (6¢ U.S. inland paid rate plus 19¢ sea and U.K. postage). He created handstamps for the unauthorized 22¢ and 25¢ rates and used them for two months before shifting to the correct 26¢ and 29¢ rates, probably on instructions from Washington D.C. Since the foreign mails left San Francisco twice per month on contract steamships to Panama, letters showing these rates appear on only four outgoing mails. A similar example of this error rate realized $4,892 in lot 53 of our Sale 27 in December 2007.