Third Avenue Post Office, New
York N.Y., 2c Black on Yellow (139L3). Cut to oval shape as always,
frameline complete all around, beautiful clear impression, uncancelled,
used with 3c Dull Red (11), large margins to touching, tied by "New-York
Oct. 5" (ca. 1856) circular datestamp on buff cover to South Cairo
N.Y.EXTREMELY FINE STAMP AND COVER. ONLY FOUR YELLOW THIRD AVENUE POST COVERS ARE KNOWN TO US.
The origin of the Third Avenue Post Office was reported in 1872 by W. Dudley Atlee in Vol. X of the Stamp Collectors Magazine, and Atlee's account was quoted in Charles H. Coster's article in the August 1874 American Journal of Philately. It reads, in part: "According to Mrs. S. Allan Taylor, this post was established in 1855 or 1856, by one S. Rothenheim, carrier for Boyd's post. The stamps he made himself, with a handstamp of either brass or metal. He afterwards gummed and trimmed them carefully, and put them up in pill boxes for sale, on the principle that they got lost and destroyed better that way, and more were the sooner asked for. Street letter boxes being generally kept at groceries, the usual place for the stamps was the till or cash drawer, where they got greatly tossed about, and being separate, small and gummed, they were easily destroyed..." Dated covers corroborate the existence of the post in 1855 and 1856. Elliott Perry located four city directory listings for S. Rothenheim (Simon and Simeon), including a letter carrier named Simeon residing at 121 W. 28th Street in 1855, but none in proximity to Third Avenue.
A more detailed summary of this information and an illustration of the cover offered here will be found in the Patton book (p. 241). Ex Perry. (Image)