One of the most important items displayed at the PRAGA 2018 specialized world stamp exhibition is so called “Bombay Cover” being franked with two Red Mauritius Post Office stamps. The cover was mailed on Jan. 4, 1850 by Reverend L. Banks living in Mauritius to Auxiliary Bible Society in Bombay. The envelope shows the strikes of the Port Luis postmarks. The cover was found by Mr. Ch. Howard in 1897 at a Bombay bazar. The lucky founder sold the item next year to a stamp collector. The cover was treated few times until 1917, when it was acquired by the prominent stamp collector A.F. Lichtenstein. The Bombay Cover was owned by the Lichtenstein family until 1968, when the cover was bought by famous Weill Brothers, the rarity stamp dealers from New Orleans, who kept the item until 1990.The last trade of the cover was executed in Switzerland in 2016, when the rarity was acquired by a Czech stamp collector, who promised to show the Bombay Cover at PRAGA 2018 stamp exhibition to introduce the exceptionally seen rarity to the philatelic and non-philatelic public.
