Scott #116 1869 10c Pictorial Cover Cold Spring NY to Paris 1870 Phantom Rate For Sale

You are buying ONE cover - an 1870 transatlantic letter from Cold Spring, New York to Paris, franked with a single 10c stamp of the 1869 Pictorial issue:

• THE STAMP IS SCOTT #116, THE 10c ORANGE “SHIELD AND EAGLE” of the 1869 Pictorial series - U.S. POSTAGE across the top, the eagle over the shield, 10 at the center and TEN CENTS along the foot. A single franking.
• IT IS TIED BY A HEAVY PATTERNED CORK CANCEL, struck in black across the middle of the design, and the strike carries off the stamp onto the envelope at its right - so the stamp and the cover belong together.
• READ OFF THE FRONT: a circular datestamp with COLD SPRING N.Y. around the rim and MAY 6 in the center. A BLUE NEW YORK EXCHANGE MARKING at the upper right, struck over the address. Addressed in a fine hand to a gentleman Care of Hottinguer & Cie, Paris, France - a Paris banking house that took mail for travelers. A pencil “1870” at the lower left in a later hand.
• THE REVERSE CARRIES THE PARIS RECEIVING STRIKE, dated 23 MAI 70. SEVENTEEN DAYS from Cold Spring to Paris, carried by way of England.
• CONDITION, SAID PLAINLY, BECAUSE NOBODY HAS SAID IT: THERE IS A FINE SPLIT IN THE PAPER RUNNING HORIZONTALLY ACROSS THE FRONT, beginning at the left edge below the stamp and traveling right for roughly a third of the width, passing beneath the address. It is a crack in the paper, not a mark - it wanders, it branches, and it widens slightly at one point. There is also light wear and toning along the top edge and a soft diagonal crease. THE STAMP, THE CORK, THE COLD SPRING DATESTAMP AND THE BLUE NEW YORK MARKING ARE ALL CLEAR OF IT, and the address is entirely legible.
• Sold as the one cover shown, exactly as pictured.

Shipped in a protective sleeve inside a rigid mailer, packed to arrive as shown.

Ten cents of orange, a shield and a bird, ✉
Cold Spring to Paris, and no treaty word.
Seventeen days and a blue New York hand, 📜
And a crack in the paper runs under the band.

- StampedeUSA