The historical postal cover signifying the flight of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart's impromptu landing at Culmore in 1932, was placed for sale by a specialist online Irish medal and postage company, based in London.
Signed personally by Amelia Earhart, the postal cover was number seven of just 50 made. Although it is unknown if the asking price was received for this fascinating piece of memorabilia, the seller notes that the last cover sold, number eight, fetched $5,250 in January 2007.
It is also known that five of the orginal covers were damaged, but the one offered for sale recently was in "excellent condition".
The airmail envelope was posted in New York on May 13, 1932 and arrived in Londonderry on May 23.
It is embellished with a diamond shaped "cachet" in commemoration the first female "Trans-Atlantic Solo Flight".
The postal covers were designed to highlight the attempt of Earhart to perform her pioneering feat. On May 20, 1932, Amelia Earhart set flight from Newfoundland carrying the latest copy of a newspaper, intended to confirm the date of the flight. The aviator intended Paris to be her destination in an attempt to emulate Charles Lindbergh's solo flight.
However, after lasting almost 15 hours during which she contended with icy conditions and mechanical problems, Earhart landed in a field at Culmore, belonging to the Gallagher family, an event captured by Londonderry Sentinel photographers.
The name on the front of the cover is that of Bernt Balchen, a Norwegian-American aviator who helped prepare her aircraft for the flight.
Famously asked by a farm hand at Culmore, Cecil King, "Have you flown far?", Amelia replied, "From America". As the first woman to achieve the Trans-Atlantic feat, Earhart received the Distinguished Flying Cross from the U.S. Congress, the Legion of Honour from the French and the Gold Medal from the National Geographic Society.
Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937 and was declared dead on January 5, 1939. Many theories still abound about the nature of her disapperance, including one claiming that she was spying for the U.S. Government on the activities of the Japanese in the build up to WWII.
Londonderry's Amelia Earhart Centre, based at Ballyarnett Country Park continues to remember this city's link to one of the most noted figures of the twentieth century.