#250

The second paid-to-the-lines example is lot #15 in the Boyd Dale/Lichtenstein sale #10 where a red tombstone Montreal strike of February 15, 1850 is found with a manuscript 4½d cy. rate to the border, (figure 9) on another Kennedy correspondence item. The pair of 5¢ 1847s are cancelled by a New York square grid.; There is reportedly evidence of a tie via a ˜faint filing crease between the stamps"as well as a minute touch of red of the square grid. New York did use a 13-bar square grid in red at this time, but I have recorded no other example on Canadian mail, while Mrs. McDonald suggests such examples need careful examination.. (There is also an encircled red ˜10"used to cancel the Canadian PAID but not as a canceller for the stamps.)
Thus, this cover meets all the qualifications of a stampless cover, with stamps added, a conclusion various specialsts have reached. Further, it might be noted that the manuscript ˜paid to the lines" is directly above a ˜251", which is the box number put on it by the sender to inform the addressee not to pay the whole postage and part has already been paid.. Were this notation intended solely for the Canadian postmaster, it would read simply ˜Charge Box 251". In the period when it was possible to part-pay or prepay a stampless cover examples can be found showing the distinctions between the two usages.

C. Hahn ( http://www.nystamp.org/1847CrossBorderCoversPart3.html)

Alexander listed as 2/15/50