Benkoelen. 1868, 10 cent red on folded letter sent locally in Benkoelen. Stamp with excellent perforations on three sides and trimmed at top, centrally struck and tied to envelope by the extremely rare half-round franco cancel Benkoelen 25.7 1870 with a red strike of the round datemark on the envelope. The letter was weighed at 16 gr. and thus underfranked; manuscript “ontoereikend”, insufficient, and charged 10c from recipient. Complete folded letter with no content preserved, very attractive.
THE ONLY KNOWN LETTER WITH THE SECOND ISSUE CANCELLED BY THE BENKOELEN HALF-ROUND FRANCO (NO LETTER KNOWN WITH THE FIRST ISSUE). AN ABSOLUTE TOP RARITY OF EARLY NEI POSTMARKS AND A LETTER RENDERED MORE INTRIGUING BY THE TWO DIFFERENT BENKOELEN POSTMARKS AND THE POSTAGE DUE CHARGE. A REMARKABLE SURVIVAL AND A STUNNING EXHIBITION ITEM OF THE HIGHEST ORDER.
Letter sent within Benkoelen, Sumatra west coast, to a Chinese resident with address written in Malay/Melayu and in Arabic. Written notation in Malay “trima 25 julij 1870”, received 25 July 1870, indicating same day delivery. Postal notation “ontoereikend” in Dutch. A fascinating trilingual address panel that witnesses to the multicultural and multilingual trading community in Benkoelen.
Provenance: Van Dieten Oct. 2018, lot 1009 (5500 EUR hammer).
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