After one collector acquired a slightly tattered cover dating back more than a century and a half, he decided to restore it to ensure its survival as a scarce and significant piece of postal history. Mailed from Prescott, Ont., to watchmaker Willis Coates in Victoria, the cover is dated May 25, 1862, about two months before the latter city’s incorporation. It paid the 15-cent rate, which is the first known rate for stamped covers to Vancouver Island or British Columbia. “I collect the ‘Decimal’ issue, and the covers that I bought represent two of the three Decimal-era rates to British Columbia and Vancouver Island between 1859 and 1868, when the ‘Large Queens’ were released,” said Jim Jung, who’s a member of the Pence-Cents Era Study Group and the editor of its newsletter. Continue reading →
An 1862 cover mailed from Prescott, Ont., to Victoria, Vancouver Island, had tears along three edges plus surface soiling before it was conserved by a professional paper restorer.
