Pre-Stamp & Stampless

Letter sent from P. Camp to Paris through the British Post Office at St. Thomas 23 October 1871, franked at St. Thomas with 3 and 4d tied by C51 vertical format, showing 1-ring “St. Thomas PAID A” in red, London transit mark and exchange office “Angl. Amb. Calais F”. Round corner at 3d stamp and interesting plate flaw at 4d stamp, vertical fold in cover not affecting the stamps.

Letter sent from St. Thomas to Kingston, Jamaica 12 April 1864 with British mail at 4d rate. Red “ST. THOMAS A - PAID” and Kingston receiving mark on front, with contents.

Envelope forwarded from St. Thomas to Rocky Hills, Conn, charged “6” cents and Boston, Mass. CDS on front and “SHIP” mark, ca. 1850'ies. On reverse forwarding agent mark “FORWARDED BY - G.W. SMITH & CO. - ST. THOMAS” in greenish blue.

Entire sent from St. Thomas to New York 1862, charged 5 cents stamped with 1-ring “5”.

Dated St. Croix 10 March 1837 to Toronto, Upper Canada. Transit “NEW-YORK / APL / 8” and red straight line “SHIP” in red struck on front and carried to exchange point Queenston north of Niagara Falls, NY and struck “QUEENSTON AP 14 1837” in greenish blue ink. Charged “27” cents in red ink, with 2¢ ship charge and 25¢ US charge, total 27US¢ due = Canadian 1/4½ shilling, plus 7d Canadian charge = 1/11½ Canadian due by addressee. From the content a mention of local mail coach service. The brig arrived in Bassin yesterday & the letters due brought over by the stage coach today, you must know that we have a regular stage every day between the two towns.

Privately conveyed entire St. Croix 26 June 1816 to Copenhagen, Denmark. British Packet’s resumed service from St. Thomas in early 1817, this letter sent with Mm. Mothy and endorsed ‘Mm. Mothy’. She was accompanying three children back to Denmark onboard of the ship ‘Europa’ under the command of Capt. Bödker. Any letter’s from DWI to Denmark prior to 1840’ies is almost unrecorded.

Unpaid letter sent from Christiansted 28 April 1856 to Copenhagen, Denmark. Canceelled ANT1 “CHRISTIANSTED 28/4 1856” alongside ANT1 “ST. THOMAS 29/4 1856” struck in blue ink. Charged manuscript “51/9” on reverse, total “60” Skilling due by the addressee noted on face, with 9 sk. Danish share, 51 foreign share = “16” Schilling Courant” = “12” Silver Groschen, of which the British share is “10” pence = 9 Silver Groschen, leaving German share with 3 Silver Groschen (12 less 9).

Prepaid entire from Copenhagen 23 June 1850 to Frederiksted, Danish West Indies. Paid 79 sk. in cash and noted ‘8’ top middle for 8 sk. late delivery fee between 1-2 hours after closing hours at the Copenhagen post office. British postage share 1/4d, London transit mark on front.

Prepaid envelope from Haderslev 18 January 1863 to Christiansted, Danish West Indies. Paid 48 sk. with 39/9 sk. foreign/Danish share of the postage. Hamburg transit, London transit and Christiansted date stamps on front, and red crayon ‘4’ cents for local delivery in DWI.

St. Thomas 16 July 1857 to Canari, Corsica, France. Stamped with British PO crowned 2-ring red ink 'PAID AT ST.-THOMAS', prepaid '1/2'. Sent with RMSPC steamer 'PARANA' departing from St. Thomas 16 July and arriving at Southampton 1 August. London 'PAID ALL / AU 2 / 1857', red circle 'PD', French 'ANGL / AMB.CALAIS 1 3 AOUT 57', backstamped small double ring 'ST. THOMAS 16 JUL 1857', Paris and receiving mark 'ST-FLORENT-EN-CORSE 9 AOUT 57 / 19'.

Copenhagen 19 September 1851 to St. Croix, Danish West Indies. Royal Service letter to the Governor of Danish West Indies at St. Croix, stamped with boxed 'Aus Daenemarck. / d. Meckleburg', tpo 'HAGENOW-ROSTOCK', 'MAGDEBURG-WITTENBERG', 'BERLIN-HAMBURG', 'BERLIN-MINDEN' and 'AACHEN - BAHNHOF 22/9' and red 1-ring London 'AN 23SP23 1851'. An unusal Royal Service letter to Danish West Indies, effected by the tropical climate.

Letter sheet stamped “ST THOMAS / Aug 2 / 1813” British fleuron mark, sent to London and backstamped circled “D / 9 SE 9 / 13”. Charged 2/2. Single packet letter rate 1/2 (1813-37), to London 1/ (Falmouth-London 1812-39, 200-300 miles), total rate charged 2/2.

Letter sent from St. Thomas to New York, stamped with red “ST. THOMAS - OFFICE - EXPRESS” in red, dated 8 February 1864.

Entire letter sheet dated St. Croix 24 October 1819 to Armagh, Ireland. Charged 1/1 and stamped BELLMULLET on arrival, scarce landing location on mail from Danish West Indies.

Docketed “Governmenthouise, St. Croix 6 September 1831” to London, England. Struck boxed “PACKET LETTER” in red on reverse and London 1-ring “C / 8 OC 8 / 1831” red, charged 2/2 to London by addressee for a single rate letter.

Unpaid single weight letter docketed St. Thomas 12. July 1873 to Genova, Italy. With RMS ELBE to London, then forwarded to Italy in the closed mails through France. Upon arrival in Genova, a collection of 17 decimi was required to pay the Italian internal postage, included the 14½ decimi fee to England. Under terms of the Anglo-Italian Convention, the postage due to Great Britain was a combination of the 1 sh. (12 decimi) per ¼ ounce British transatlantic packet service and transit fee to France, plus the 1 Franc per 30 gram (25c per 7½ gram) closed mail transit fee through France to Italy, for a total of 14½ decimi. Added to this amount was 20 centisimi per 7½ gram Italian internal postage, and the total was rounded up to 17 decimi.

Entire dated St. Croix 5 March 1810 to Aberdeen, Scotland and Edinburgh datestamp in red “APR / W / 8 / M / 1810”. Packet rate West Indies to Falmouth 1/1d, Falmouth to Aberdeen inland rate 600-700 miles 1/4d, total 2/5 charged by addressee. Only one of two blue impression of this postmark known, and this is the finest of the two. This being a single letter, the other a double rate letter, both sent at exactly the same date.

Letter front sent from St. Thomas to Ponce, Puerto Rico showing green octagonal “S.TOMAS” and 2 1/2 due mark. (1840) Front only.

Entire dated St. Thomas 18. juni 1851 to Bordeaux. Sent with RMSPC “CLYDE” to Southampton, London 7 July, Calais 8 July. In France charged “8” decimes by addressee. On reverse “forwarded from London by J.D.” and listed in K. Rowe “The Postal history of the Forwarding agents”.

"Entire from St. Thomas 16 January 1858 to Hamburg via London. Rate to Hamburg 3 sh. 2d ( 3 ounce letter 1/4 per 1/4 ounce plus 2d marked by ink) red chalk "54" payable by receiver. Cancelled with the British St. Thomas Post Office single 1-ring on the reverse, quite a scarce postmark."

Folded letter sheet from Arroyo, Puerto Rico 9 April 1870 via St. Thomas to New York, USA. Franked with 10c yellow bright shade pictorial issue (SC 116) tied by N YORK – STEAM SHIP and ST. THOMAS 14/4 1869 cds, routing instruction Pr. Brazil Str. and forwarder Lamb & Co cachet in red. A beautiful letter.