ColombiaClassic Issues1859, 10c. orange brown, stone A, a scarce shade with detailed impression,

ColombiaClassic Issues1859, 10c. orange brown, stone A, a scarce shade with detailed impression, clear to predominantly huge margins, cancelled by very fine strike of "4" pre-adhesive period numeral handstamp possessing a certain shape which is characteristic of the type used at Cúcuta, used on cover from Cúcuta (manuscript docket inside) to Maracaibo (Venezuela, Swift correspondence), with "10 c." manuscript rate endorsement on dispatch as usually applied by some Colombian post offices before the application of the adhesive. A postal convention, signed on 24.11.1838 by the three countries which previously formed the Gran Colombia: Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, established that mail from, and sent to, any of these three countries, was fully prepaid to final destination by only paying the portion of the journey from the locality of dispatch to the border, i.e. the internal tariff; in this instance, 10 centavos covered the double weight from 10 to 15 grams for a distance up to 50 km., this corresponding to the length between Cúcuta and the bordering town of Villa del Rosario in Colombia, the mail being then transferred to the Venezuelan post at San Antonio del Táchira. This theory clarify this special rate which has been a mystery to collectors of Colombian postal history. One of thirteen significant first-issue covers addressed to an external destination, of which six were sent to Venezuela, three bearing the 10c., these belonging to the same correspondence. A desirable item demonstrating the very rare application of the 1838 bordering external rate paying postage to destination. Cert. Bortfeldt (erroneously states the number of items known to Venezuela and does not mention the rate), signed Newbury. Scott 4b. Ex Newbury, Kaplan, Frohlich and Hubbard.