Rare Pony Express cover
R Harmer held its 10th, and final, auction from the Erivan collection on 30 April. Featuring material from the USA, the auction included items not seen on the market for many decades. One of the many highlights was one of only six Pony Express covers recorded to foreign destinations, this being the unique example to Switzerland (lot 101). It featured a Wells, Fargo & Co. Pony Express $1 red in a bright shade tied by a blue ‘Pony Express San Francisco/Sep 7’ oval to a red Wells, Fargo & Co. printed entire with a 10c green Nesbitt. The cover, to Pietro Martinelli in Maggia, Ticino, Switzerland, was further affixed with two 3c dull red (type II) and two 10c green (type V), and it was postmarked by red New York Foreign Mail Office grid cancellations. The two 3c values were also tied by the blue Running Pony handstamp. On the reverse, there was a red ‘NEW-YORK BR. PKT./SEP 25’ circular datestamp, along with various markings, including those from Aachen, Basel, Lucerne and Locarno, recording the journey of the cover. It was transported on the eastbound Pony Express that departed San Francisco on Saturday, 7 September and carried from New York via British packet, then onwards through Aachen and conveyed via Prussian closed mail, travelling
