CHARLESTON PENNY POST: BRUNSWICK Ga. JUL 3 (1861) PAID with manuscript “5” (CSA Catalog type A) on cover to Miss Fannie M. Marion, Charlotte Street. Charleston So Ca with rare sender’s directive “Penny Post Deliverer.” Only 5 such Charleston carriers are listed in the Siegel Census, although Charleston student Rick Calhoun says in his Charleston book that “less than 20 recorded as used during the war,” which I believe is more credible. Either way, it is a rare cover. CSA Catalog type CS-01, CV $3,500.  Small owner backstamp of R.L. Calhoun $2,300. Listed in both Miscellaneous, section 2, and Georgia Stampless.

Charleston Penny Post Service. Home delivery of mail did not exist until many years after the Civil War. In some cities, an independent mail service would deliver the mail from the post office to a street address for an additional charge. In 1849, Jno. H. Honor Jr. began a “penny post service” in Charleston. The various carrier services used small paper labels to indicate payment. These were discontinued by 1860 and only manuscript notations are known to exist during the war. By 1861, only John C. Beckman, Joseph G. Martin, and John F. Steinmeyer, Jr. still operated the Charleston Penny Post service. Although the penny post service continued through the Civil War, fewer than 20 Charleston penny post covers are recorded used during the war. Source: Charleston, South Carolina, and the Confederate Postmaster Provisionals by Richard L Calhoun, pp. 16-17. May 2023 Charleston Penny Post article at https://www.trishkaufmann.com/media/pages/articles/78c3d55750-1682693816/2023asc-d.may.trish.pdf - hard copy of the article included with this cover.