This airmail cover was mailed from the port city of Paita on the
Pacific coast near Piura some 900 km northwest of Lima.
This cover was carried on the return flight after
the inaugural flight from Lima to Paita on September 13.

There are three strikes of the Paita CDS.
There are also some partial strikes of a double
framed box of what may have been a special airmail stamp.

What makes this cover particularly interesting is the use of the first Peruvian airmail stamp.
The stamp was made for a series of special flights
by the U.S. Naval Air Mission in December, 1928.
It was made by overprinting the 1924 50c violet statue of Maria Bellido.
The overprint was Servicio | Aéreo | 1.
On this stamp the overprint is inverted.

The original offer described this as one of two known overprints on cover.
Scott does not list an overprint for C1 but does caution "Counterfeits exist."

I do not know the significance of what appears to be a signature
below the stamp nor can I explain the 4988 at the top.*
The 3000 in the lower right corner appears to have been a price.

The stamp appears authentic to me but it could easily have
been made by affixing a counterfeit overprint to create a rarity.
There were nine months after the stamp was originally issued to create the overprint.
It would certainly be necessary to compare the overprint with known genuine copies.
Opinions, anyone?

In addition to the airmail stamp, there is a 1924 10c orange red Leguia
(Scott 245) and a 1928 2c dark violet postal tax stamp (Scott RA13).
This stamp was the last in a series of  postal tax stamps were issued starting in 1925
to help defray the costs of a plebiscite for the
cites of Tacna and Arica which were under Chilean occupation.

*Bob Lodge suggests that the 4988 at the top is possibly an auction lot number.

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