Postal Systems and the Public
React to the American Civil War
How Did the Union React?
Demonetized Existing Stamps and
Issued New Stamps
At the outbreak of the war, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair
was concerned about large quantities of stamps that remained in
the hands of southern postmasters.
Blair decided to invoke a demonetization
policy that would render useless all
stamps issued from 1847 to 1861.
This in turn required the issuing of new
stamps.
Issued New Stamps
Demonetized U.S. Regular Issues of 1851-1860
New U.S. Regular Issues of 1861 - 1869
Demonetized Existing Stamps
Supplies of the new stamps were to be issued to major post offices and
each office would advertise to exchange the old for the new. After a short
period of time allowing the exchanges, the old stamps would no longer be
recognized as valid postage.
A critical component of the demonetization plan was to identify and reject
any attempted uses of the old stamps and embossed envelopes after local
demonetization. This gave rise to a number of explanatory markings on
the envelopes, the most famous of which and the one that set the
standard is “OLD STAMPS / NOT RECOGNIZED” used in Philadelphia.
Demonetized Existing Stamps
How Long Was the Handstamp Used?
Cartes de Visite Tax Paid with
Revenue Stamps
Patented in Paris, France, in 1854, cartes de visite (CDVs)
were photographs created with a special camera that produced
eight poses on one negative producing a card the size of the
then standard calling card, around 2.5” by 4".
CDVs arrived in the United States
around 1859. At the outbreak of the
Civil War in 1861, demand for cartes
de visite quickly grew as soldiers and
their loved ones sought an affordable
image remembrance.
Cartes de Visite Tax Paid with
Revenue Stamps
Faced with the financial demands of the Civil War, a June 30,
1864, act of Congress placed a new luxury tax on "photographs,
ambrotypes, daguerreotypes or any other sun-pictures."
Photographers were required to affix a properly denominated
revenue stamp on the back of the image and cancel it by initialing
and dating it in pen.
The amount of tax required for a carte de visite was determined
by the cost of the photograph:
- Less than 25 cents: 2 cent stamp
- 25 to 50 cents: 3 cent stamp
- 50 cents to $1: 5 cent stamp
- More than $1: 5 cents for each additional dollar or
fraction thereof
Cartes de Visite Tax Paid with
Revenue Stamps
However, there was not a special stamp created for photography.
So, you will see on the backs of carte de visite photographs
revenue stamps originally intended for Bank Checks, Playing
Cards, Certificates, Proprietary, Bill of Lading, etc.
Proprietary Stamp
Playing Cards Stamp
Cartes de Visite Tax Paid with
Revenue Stamps
Multiples and Combinations
Cartes de Visite Tax Paid with
Revenue Stamps
Bisects
How Did the Union Public React?
Patriotic Covers
From the earliest days of the Civil War, designs
began to appear on envelopes sold to the public
which expressed various kinds of sentiments of
patriotism and/or negative caricature-like opinions
of the enemy. This type of postal expression had
never been used to any extent prior to the Civil
War.
At least 200 publishers and printers produced
patriotic designs for envelopes.
Patriotic Covers
Stamps Substituting for Money?
Of the many shortages of goods and services in the early
years of the U.S. Civil War, none was more interesting than
the shortage of coins and the enterprising and creative
solutions to remedy that shortage using postage stamps.
X
Encased Stamps
On August 12, 1862, Gault obtained a patent for a “postage stamp case”, or as
he named the item in a newspaper advertisement, the “New Metallic Currency.”
Machines used to make buttons was the
fundamental component in Gault’s idea.
Starting with a round piece of brass (about the
size of a quarter) as the backing, and then
layering on a piece of cardboard, a stamp, a
piece of mica (as a clear covering for the
stamp) and finally another piece of brass with a
hole in it, the button machine would press all of
the pieces together to create the encased
stamp.
The final step in the process was for the
machine to bend over the edges of the frame to
keep all of the pieces inside the case.
Encased Stamps
Gault didn’t sell the encased stamps to the public. Instead, he sold them
to stores and businesses that needed “coinage” to make change for
customers’ purchases. Gault’s profit came from the 20% markup over
the face value of the stamp.
To increase his potential profit, Gault’s second idea was to inscribe
advertising on the back of the encased stamp. He would charge
companies who purchased the metallic currency an additional 2¢ for
each item.
Stamp Envelopes
An alternative solution to encased stamps was
the stamp envelope.
Recall that people carried quantities of stamps
in purses and pockets and the same stamps
were used repeatedly for daily transactions. All
of this hand-to-hand usage quickly resulted in
damaged stamps with denominations
sometimes unrecognizable. The local post
offices would not exchange damaged stamps
for new ones.
Stamp Envelopes
A few enterprising printers in the N.Y. area decided they had the
answer.
They created small envelopes that would contain stamps of
various amounts and value.
On the front of the envelopes would be printed “10 Cents”, “25
Cents” or whatever the value of the stamps that the envelope
contained. The enclosed stamps would then be protected from
repeated handling.
Stamp Envelopes
Postage (“Fractional”) Currency
Encased stamps and stamp envelopes were widely accepted in the
general commerce realm until later in 1862 when the government issued
“fractional currency”, i.e., bills with values of less than one dollar. This
legitimate, government sanctioned currency quickly eliminated the coin
shortage.
Notice the images on this “currency”.
How Did the Confederacy React?
Union Delivers Confederate Mail
Interestingly, the Confederate Post office was established on February 21, 1861 in
anticipation of the war. It was not until April 12 that the American Civil War
officially began when the Confederate Army fired upon US soldiers who had refused
to abandon Fort Sumter.
The U.S. Post Office Department continued to handle the mail of the seceded states
as usual during the first seven weeks of the war.
May 8, 1861
Atlanta to Salem, N.C.
It was not until June 1
that the Confederate
Post office took over
collection and delivery,
now faced with the task
of providing postage
stamps and mail
services for its citizens.
Postmasters’ Provisionals
Although the Confederate government had contracted for the
printing of its own stamps, they were not yet available on June
1, forcing postmasters all over the South to improvise.
Most of the time they simply went back to the old practice of
accepting payment in cash and applying a "PAID" hand-stamp
to the envelope.
However, a number of postmasters, particularly those in the
larger cities, could not afford to be handling long lines of cash
customers, and developed a variety of Postmaster’s
provisionals.
These took a variety of forms, from envelopes prestamped
with a postmark modified to say "paid" or an amount, to
regular stamps produced by local printers.
Postmasters’ Provisionals
Postmasters’ Provisionals
The Baton Rouge, La. Provisional was the
first government-issued, bi-colored
adhesive stamps to appear anywhere in
the Western Hemisphere according to the
National Postal Museum.
Confederate Stamps
All imperforates
How Did the Confederate Public
React?
Coins Used as Proxies for Stamps
Not having access to provisional stamps or other means of
prepaying postage, an intriguing method of prepayment
was routinely accepted in the Confederacy.
A coin affixed to an envelope to pay the required postage
was never a sanctioned, approved option. However, many
mailings – during the provisional timeframe and
throughout the entire war - used exactly this payment
method when stamps were not available.
Coins Used as Proxies for Stamps
Coins Used as Proxies for Stamps
Coins Used as Proxies for Stamps
Adversity Covers
During the American Civil War, Union navy and railroad blockades
isolated the Confederacy from all markets, creating shortages of
almost every kind of commodity, including paper. The saying,
“Necessity is the Mother of Invention”, has never been more
aptly used than when describing the multitude of solutions to the
paper shortage the Confederate states encountered.
Blank paper on which to write a letter was certainly in short
supply. But even more scarce were envelopes to mail the
correspondence. Every source of paper imaginable was used to
create envelopes: the backs of title pages from books, sheet
music, blank checks, maps, hotel guest registers, insurance
forms, advertisement flyers and a host of other paper sources.
Given these dire, adverse situations, collectors refer to these
envelopes as “adversity” covers.
Adversity Covers
Tusculum College Printed Notice
Hand-colored European Map
Adversity Covers
Whiskey Bottle Label
Hair Tonic Advertisement
Adversity Covers
Hartford Fire Insurance form
Blueprint
Adversity Covers
Some of the most colorful adversity covers were created from
wallpaper either cut from surplus rolls or stripped from the walls of
living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms. The envelope was
made by cutting a rectangular piece of wallpaper and folding it into
the appropriate shape, with the design being the inside of the
piece.
Adversity Covers
Adversity Covers
From Columbia S.C. to Athens, Ga.
Adversity Covers
One of the first signs of the growing paper shortage in the
Confederate states was the type of adversity cover called a
“turned” cover. Envelopes from previous mailings were carefully
turned inside out, regummed and used again.
Sometimes a single envelope was reused two or three times before
the sheer weakness of its folds forced its retirement.
Adversity Covers
An intriguing category for collectors of Confederate turned covers
are the envelopes called “pre-war”, i.e., the initial use of the
envelope was prior to the outbreak of the American Civil war.
The re-use of pre-war envelopes was commonly practiced in the
Confederacy. However, examples are reasonably scarce. And, prewar turned covers using the U.S. 1851 or 1855 3-cent Washington
issues are very rare.
Adversity Covers
A Unique “Confederate” Adversity Cover
The Roswell, Ga., resident sent the
correspondence in an envelope that
was originally a Union patriotic cover
that displayed a caricature of Lady
Liberty. (Rotated image below.)
From Roswell, Ga. to Staunton, Va.
We can only assume that a
Southerner living in Roswell, Ga.,
did not have a proper envelope to
mail their correspondence (or paper
to create an envelope) and, hence,
they crafted an adversity cover by
using a Northern patriotic envelope.
Naturally, this Southerner turned the
envelope inside out to create the
final piece!
Adversity Covers
A very interesting message is written on the envelope:
“From Montgomery Alabama May 7th 1865. Envelope made of wallpaper.”
Why would the person sending the letter “announce” that the envelope
was made of wallpaper? The date included in the written message
provides the key.
Adversity Covers
May 7th was three days after the
surrender at Citronelle, Alabama,
by Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard
Taylor, the son of President
Zachery Taylor.
The letter contained in the May 7th adversity envelope was not
from a Confederate soldier. Rather, it was from a Union soldier
gloating over their Alabama victory and making fun of the
Confederacy.
"This is Johnny Reb paper I write this letter on and will enclose it
in a Reb envelope made out of wallpaper. If us Yanks had to
come down to this I would think we was hard up."
Patriotic Labels
Seven adhesive Confederate patriotic labels (sometimes referred to
as stickers, seals or wafers) have been recorded on postally used
covers.
The most common of the Confederate labels is the ST-1, “Our Flag”
variety (if you can consider only 17 recorded covers bearing an
example as “common”).
Patriotic Labels
Bisects
When supplies of the regular 10-cent stamps
were exhausted or requisitions for 10-cent
stamps were delayed by the war, postmasters
in a number of Confederate cities bisected their
CSA #13s and sold these as 10-cent stamps.
20-Cent Washington,
CSA #13
Bisects
Ironically, individual Post Office patrons were discouraged from
bisecting a 20-cent stamp as evidenced by the following notice in
the "Richmond Daily Examiner" of April 24, 1863:
"POSTAGE STAMPS. From ignorance or other causes, a number of
letters have been put in the post office boxes with halves of the
twenty cent stamps attached to them for postage. These letters
go to the Dead Letter Office. “
Despite this public warning, many postal patrons continued to
send letters using bisects, and very few were relegated to the
Dead Letter Office.
Bisects
Bisects
Bisects
The four diagonal bisects of the CSA #13 paid
the 40c Trans-Mississippi rate.
Postal Systems and the Public
React to the American Civil War
- Demonitized Stamps
- New Issues: Union
- War Tax Paid with
Revenue Stamps
- Patriotic Covers
- Encased Stamps
- Stamp Envelopes
- Fractional Currency
- Postmaster Provisionals
- New Issues: Confederacy
- Coins Substituting for
Stamps
- Adversity Covers
- Patriotic Labels
- Bisects
Postal Systems and the Public
React to the American Civil War