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Auction: SW1020 - Maritime Mail of Spanish Colonies in America
Lot: 27

ColombiaOutgoing Mail1800, Oct. 3. Folded cover with contents, repeatedly re-folded and reused to be sent to three different addressees, possessing three different fronts. Although the letter is datelined in Santoña (Spain), it was initially dispatched at Cartagena in Colombia and sent to Santa Fé de Bogotá, struck by red "Cartagena" & "Franca" straight-line handstamps and carried at "3" reales single rate; from Santa Fé de Bogotá, the cover was re-folded and addressed to Madrid, being redirected inland to Cifuentes, bearing boxed "SantaFé/Yndias/Debe." handstamp, taxed with 6 reales as an unpaid single weight letter, backstamped on arrival on April 3; once more it was reused and re-addressed within Spain to Santoña, with application of two-line "Cifs/Alcarria" handstamp, rated at 5 cuartos for the single weight. In the first instance, the letter must have been privately carried outside the mails from Santoña (Spain) to America, where it entered the post thorugh an intricate journey back to Spain. An extraordinary and unique transatlantic letter being re-forwarded on four occasions and doubly crossing the Atlantic.

Sold for
€1,000