World's oldest cover with a postage stamp goes on the auction block in Switzerland

The mother of all covers -- the first one known to bear a postage stamp -- will be auctioned in Switzerland Feb. 17.

The event, which will take place at the Swissotel in Zurich, should make headlines around the world.

This folded letter sheet postmarked in London May 1, 1840, is the oldest cover in the world to bear a postage stamp, the famed Penny Black. It will be sold on Feb. 17.

The auctioneer is David Feldman, whose sale of such rarities as the world's most valuable stamp -- the Swedish 1855 Three Skilling Banco yellow error of color -- and most valuable cover -- the 1847 Post Office Mauritius 1 penny and 2d -- cemented his reputation as the lord of the gavel.

Feldman will be selling what is known simply as the May 1st Cover.

It is expected to realize up to $580,000, which is much less than another famous cover very much like it.

The May 1st Cover is actually a folded letter sheet that was once so worn and fragile that it was held together with Scotch tape.

The cover's existence has been known for several decades, but until recently, it has not received much respect.

It was twice denied a certificate of authenticity by the expert committee of the Royal Philatelic Society in London. A third trip to the RPSL in 1997 resulted in an opinion that it is genuine.

The tape has been removed, leaving only a light stain on one of the folds, as may be seen in the color photograph shown nearby.

The letter sheet bears a Penny Black -- the world's first postage stamp -- tied by a speck of red canceling ink and a flourishing manuscript "2." The black ink of the "2" just grazes the bottom of the stamp. On the back is a red London datestamp of May 1, 1840.

On the other side of the letter sheet is a brief note that a Scottish businessman sent to his wife, saying his homecoming had been delayed. It is dated in his hand, "London 1st May 1840."

That was the day the Penny Black was put on sale; however, it was not valid for postage until five days later on May 6.

Inevitably, some were pressed into service before the official issue date, and other predate covers are well known, but no other bears a stamp as early as this one.

Together with the Twopenny Blue stamp and prepaid letter sheets and envelopes designed by William Mulready, a genre painter and member of the Royal Academy, the Penny Black symbolized a revolution in communication.

The stamps and postal stationery played a key role in introducing Rowland Hill's system of uniform postage to the world.

In the 1830s, Hill proposed the adoption of uniform penny postage for local letters through the use of stamps and prepaid letter sheets and envelopes, which he incorrectly believed would be more widely accepted than the adhesive labels that gave birth to the hobby of stamp collecting.

Up to that time, a complex formula was used to assess postage based on the number of sheets of paper used and the distance the letter traveled. The recipient was responsible for payment, leading to a cumbersome and insecure collection process and the evolution of secret marks on the faces of covers that often conveyed the message within.

The House of Lords held a competition in the fall of 1839, soliciting proposals to implement the reforms.

The Mulready letter sheets were printed with instructions on the back explaining how they were to be used in combination with stamps:

"It is REQUESTED that all Letters may be fully and legibly addressed, and posted as early as convenient. Also that whatever kind of stamp may be used, it may invariably stand above the address, and towards the right hand side of the Letter."

Thus began the convention of affixing stamps to the upper-right corner of envelopes, accompanied by a notice to mail early in the day.

Postal clerks were told in advance to cancel the stamps, envelopes and letter sheets in red ink with a new obliterating device utilizing the design of a Maltese cross.

And it was the Maltese cross that was used to obliterate the Penny Black on the May 1st Cover.

The cancellation was socked so squarely on the nose that experts who first examined the cover believed that the stamp had been added later.

Even the collector who originally obtained the cover was skeptical.

When he submitted it to the Royal for the first time in 1978, he wrote: "I purchased it thinking that it must be a forgery, and after much deliberation carefully took the stamp off the cover. Upon examination after this, I found the stamp was tied to the cover in two places . . .

"I have spent a great deal of time on researching this letter and am very intrigued by it, for I realise that it could be one of the earliest covers known stamped, or indeed the earliest."

Time, persistence, modern technology and the discovery of a link between the cover and a correspondence ultimately turned the tide of opinion.

"For almost a decade, little was heard about the item," Feldman wrote in the introduction to the auction catalog. "However, renewed interest in postal history and cover collecting and the importance of having 'earliest dates' as 'starting point items' in exhibit collections raised demand and prices for this area in philately."

Patrick Pearson, chairman of the expert committee at the Royal, said the new evidence of provenance, together with modern computer-based imaging equipment, prompted the society to embark on what he called "a detailed investigation of both the letter sheet itself and the circumstances surrounding the sale of the Penny Black in May 1840."

Since the Royal's initial examination in 1979, an article had come to light from the Sept. 5, 1959, issue of The Scotsman.

The subject was the Andrew Smith family of Mauchline, Ayrshire, a town about 25 miles south-southwest of Glasgow as the crow flies.

During the first half of the 19th century, Andrew Smith and his brother William manufactured ornate snuff boxes.

When the popularity of snuff declined, they retooled and produced tourist souvenirs for popular resorts and intricate boxes covered with ruled and colored designs of Scottish tartans.

The article in The Scotsman mentioned the Andrew Smith correspondence, which survived a fire in 1933 that destroyed the family box works.

"The first letter [in the series] was a personal one, written from London to his wife Nanny in Mauchline," the article said. "Its only interest is that it is dated May 1840 and bears a new 1d black stamp."

This is, beyond doubt, the May 1st Cover, to which Andrew Smith affixed a stamp when he posted it in London.

How he knew where to place it is unknown, unless he read the instruction given in a Mulready letter sheet.

The manuscript "2" on the letter was put there by a postal clerk who knew that the stamps would not be valid for another five days.

Hence, the new stamps were not recognized, just as old stamps were not recognized by the United States government 21 years later on letters coming from the South early in the Civil War.

A prepaid letter in Britain in 1840 cost 1 penny, but double that was due if it was not prepaid, so the stamp on the May 1st Cover was, for all practical purposes, an embellishment.

But unique items are valued highly by some collectors, who sometimes let emotions guide them in spending dizzying sums.

Until the May 1st Cover was certified, the earliest known use of a Penny Black on a cover was May 2, 1840, when an example was canceled on a turned Mulready letter sheet with a red "PAID" tombstone datestamp.

A collector paid $2.4 million for the cover when it was sold by Harmers Auctions in Lugano, Switzerland, March 23, 1991.

That is the second highest price ever paid for a philatelic item.

The highest was $3.8 million for the 1847 Post Office Mauritius 1 penny and 2d cover sold by Feldman Nov. 3, 1993.

Third highest was the Swedish 1855 Three Skilling Banco yellow error of color, which was bid up to $2.27 million at Feldman's auction of Nov. 8, 1996.

Penny Black cognoscenti now feel that the May 2, 1840, cover was overbid, and that Feldman's far lower estimate for the May 1 Cover is realistic.

There are some collectors who feel that almost any price paid for a predated Penny Black cover is too much.

Herb Trenchard, historian of the American Philatelic Society and a collector of cinderellas, or fantasy, items, regards the May 1st and May 2nd covers as just that.

"It was a cinderella that became a real stamp on May 6," he said. "It's the equivalent of using a Christmas seal and getting it through the U.S. mail service."

The auction catalog for the May 1st Cover may be obtained for $10 from David Feldman S.A., 175 Route de Chancy, CH-1213 Onex, Geneva, Switzerland.