Lot 7321
Menant & Co. Express Post, 104L1, 2c Dark Red, New Orleans Local, Large Margins All Around, Unused, No Gum
A Philatelic Icon, One of Only Five Examples, Very Fine Appearance
Ausruf: $5,000
Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000
Illustrated in The Great Mail; A Postal History of New Orleans. By Leonard V. Huber, page 133
Unused, without gum. Large margins all around. Small thin, light creases, and faint soiling. Vert Fine appearance.
Six examples of 104L1 are recorded, all unused. One is permanently held in the Tapling Collection at the British Library, leaving only five in private hands. The stamp offered here is illustrated in The Great Mail (p. 133) and is among the finest examples.
Menant & Co.'s Express Post commenced operations in 1853 at 21 Conti Street, New Orleans. The firm later relocated to 118 Exchange Place, adjacent to the New Orleans post office, where it remained in business at least through 1856.
Provenienz
Ex Souren and Hall
Wann wird dieses Los versteigert?
The Philatelic Icons Sale 2026 | June 26-28
Sale 33b: Locals (continued): Eagle City Post - Whittlesey's Express — Sunday, June 28, 2026 | 3pm EST, 12pm PST
We are honored to present The Philatelic Icons Sale, the largest and most significant auction Americana Stamps has ever offered.
America's history lives in the letters that crossed goldfields and battle lines, in express covers that linked frontier towns to the outside world, and in the stamps that mark how a young country built its postal system from scratch. This sale brings together more than 1,500 lots that trace that story, including philatelic icons seldom offered to the public.
This auction is a natural fit for 2026, the 250th year of the United States, and for the Boston 2026 World Expo (May 23 to 30, Booth 141), the once-per-decade international exhibition where we are proud to open the sale. More than 750 lots are accompanied by Philatelic Foundation certifications, the largest concentration of certified material we have ever offered in a single sale.
As always, the sale is designed to serve both the collector and the researcher. Whenever available, you can expect:
✔ High-resolution imagery of all aspects of the item
✔ Links to reference articles and supporting research
✔ Links to philatelic certifications
✔ Census data and population insights
✔ Provenance details to trace notable histories
Whether you are pursuing a long-sought rarity or simply enjoy the chance to study material of this caliber, we invite you to explore the Philatelic Icons Sale and join us in Boston for our largest in-person preview to date.