The Two-dollar Prexie
Five-and-one-half ounces surface/air to India
This is a commercial first day cover sent at a complex rate to India, and opened.
The addressee Sanjana was a philatelist, to judge from other covers sent to him that are pictured on the internet. This cover was sent at a complex rate, five and a half times the surface rate to London, five cents for the first ounce and three cents for each additional ounce, to a total of twenty cents. From London it went by air at fifteen cents per half ounce, for another $1.65. It was registered, for another fifteen cents. .20 + 1.65 + .15 = 2.00.
The cover was sent from the Milo Bar Bell System, of Philadelphia, to a Mr. Mina R. Sanjana in the Auditor's Office of the Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railway Company, but it was sent from Washington, D.C., the first day city for the $2.00 Prexie, on the first day it was issued. Why would the bar bell system mail anything from Washington unless there was a good reason, like a new $2.00 stamp was going to be issued there on the day of mailing, and someone had figured out a rate combination that would just equal $2.00? This appears to be a nice copy of a commercial first day cover, mailed at a complex rate combination that has probably not existed before nor since.