Today in Postal History
Peru to Spain
June 15, 1880 This cover was sent
from Lima.
The cover is franked with coat of arms stamps from
1874 and
1879 overprinted in 1880.
The overprint is an oval with UNION POSTAL UNIVERSAL | LIMA
within two outer outlines and PLATA inside.
There are four 2c rose overprinted in blue and
two 5c ultramarine overprinted in red (Scott 33 and 35).
There are two Lima CDS.
The sender, Edwardo Vieytes of Lima,
has an oval handstamp on the reverse.
He requested that the mail be sent via Panama.
The routing was up the coast from Lima to Panama City probably via the
Pacific Steam Navigation Co. under contract to the British Post Office.
The transit of the isthmus would have been via the Panama Railroad.
At Chagres on the Atlantic coast the cover went aboard the French mail
Ligne A for transport to Spain.
It was aboard the ship on July 1.
The cover's arrival at its destination of Bilbao occurred on July 14
(at least that is the way I interpret the 14.7.0 at the bottom of the
CDS on the reverse).
Bilbao is on the Bay of Biscay near the French border.
I do not know whether Bilbao was a port of call of the Ligne A mailship
or whether it was transported by land from a French port.
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