INDEPENDENT MAILS continued...

EXTREMELY FINE. AN INCALCULABLY RARE VERTICAL STRIP OF 75L5 USED ON A COVER FROM HALE & COMPANY'S NORWICH OFFICE -- A REMARKABLE AND ALMOST CERTAINLY UNIQUE COMBINATION OF PHILATELIC AND POSTAL HISTORY ELEMENTS.

As noted in lot 253, the Hale & Co. plate was modified by removing the "13 Court St." address sometime between April 1844, when Hale moved its Boston office to 23 State St. (according to Robson Lowe), and June 5, 1844, the earliest recorded use of the 75L5 stamp from the modified plate. After the initial printing from the plate in its Second State (address removed), the edges of the designs at left (Positions 1/6/11/16) and right (Positions 5/10/15/20) were damaged to varying degrees. The defective plate is considered the Third State. The sheet offered in lot 253 shows the bruised-plate impressions and dent in Position 1 very clearly. This strip has none of the bruising or Position 1 defect, and, therefore, it must be an early printing from the Second State plate (see lot 254 for a block from this printing).

The Hale & Co. stamps were usually cut apart into singles for convenience. Robson Lowe observed that covers bearing multiple-rate frankings often had two or more of the same position. He speculated that, as a practical matter, 20 sheets were stacked and mechanically die-cut, and the 20 stamps from each cut would be packaged and sold for a dollar. We are unable to comment on the validity of Mr. Lowe's theory, due to insufficient data. However, we have observed that multiples of any kind are scarce, but the few strips of three or larger we have seen, apart from this example, are 75L1 with the 13 Court St. address. Our theory is that strips were used more frequently between March and July 1844, probably before the practice of cutting sheets into singles became commonplace. This March-July period overlaps the early months when 75L1 was the only stamp available (75L2 Red is not relevant to the subject of multiples, as no strips are known -- only one pair). As noted above, the earliest known use of 75L5 is June 5, and the later printings (possibly no earlier than August) come from the damaged plate. This strip has Second State impressions -- therefore, it is an early 75L5 printing -- and the fact that it is a strip fits with our theory that the use of multiples vs. machine-cut singles decreased after August 1844. We have yet to see a used strip of the Third State 75L5 stamp, but we would welcome the report of its existence.

In summation, we can point to five significant components of rarity present in this cover: 1) it bears a strip of three, which is rare, 2) it is a vertical strip of three, which is an even rarer configuration for a Hale multiple, and it comes from the corner of the sheet, 3) it is a strip from the Second State plate, showing the undamaged subjects in Positions 1/6/11, 4) the stamps have the "N" initial (Norwich), which is a very rare form of overprint, presumably for control purposes (it is not a precancel, as it is sometimes called, because the initialed stamps are always cancelled), and 5) the cover has the rare Norwich office handstamp, of which very few are known. (Image)