Lot
2142 
Mexico, 1879, Foreign Mail 1st Issue (Juarez), 5c orange, Mazatlan, cons 2781, tied by grid handstamp on cover to San Francisco, octagonal red datestamp "Correo Mazatlan Ago 1 1881" (Schimmer Sin 28/5), red San Francisco receiver and pencil notation "Newbern"; cover toning, F.-V.F. Scott No. 125 Estimate $250 - 350.
Shows 1879 tariff basic rate of 5 centavos that was continued in the new 1 April 1880 tariff. The Newbern was an inter-costal ship that plyed the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) from Puerto Isabel on the Colorado River to Mazatlan and possibly as far as San Blas or Manzanillo and provided the sea connection by calling in San Francisco. The Newbern was associated with silver smuggling into the USA which had a high duty on silver. It foundered on rocks at Pt Fermin, San Pedro, California and sank in 1893 with $250,000 in cargo, mostly silver, aboard.