Lot no. 1354

1858, 40 pa. blue on white wove paper, two overlapped examples , tied by blue cds. "ROMAN MOLDOVA 19/5"to small money letter for a transmission of 50 ducats in gold to Jassy. The right hand stamp had been used before with clear blue "JASSY / MOLDOVA" cds. . Obviously the Postmaster in Roman himself applied the second stamp over the already used example, presumably pocketing the 40 parales paid by the sender. Further strike of the Roman datestamp at lower right. An extraordinary postal fraud and the only recorded from Roman; the staff at the Post Office there (and at Berlad and Botosani) were dismissed by the Moldavian Finance Minister on November 2, 1859. Signed Calves and certificate Heimbüchler BPP (2010)

Reference: Illustrated and discussed in the Heimbüchler handbooks and in “Edition d’Or, volume XII”, page 78

Provenance: Fritz Heimbüchler (Corinphila 2010)