Athens, Ga 5¢ purple #5X1a tête-bêche foot to foot vertical pair used on expertly restored cover, faint cancel visible pair with circular date stamp at left, addressed to “Capt. George Hillyer, 9th Regmt Georgia Vol, Manassas, Virginia” by his father, Judge Junius Hillyer. The Athens provisional stamps were issued during postmaster Thomas Crawford’s term and bear his name. They were printed on white wove paper from a form consisting of two similar but distinctly different woodcut designs. This results in all pairs showing both types. The pair was created by the work-and-turn printing method, as opposed to an inverted cliché among subjects on the plate. All are extremely rare. ONLY FOUR TÊTE-BÊCHE PAIRS ON COVER are RECORDED. This fourth one surfaced in late 2012. Provenance is from an old-time Atlanta collection; the purchase receipt for this cover from that collector was 1959, hence it was “off the grid” during the period when serious record keeping was taking place. Other Hillyer covers, some with letters, were also part of this recently discovered material including a patriotic from the Hillyer Rifles. This cover was featured in The Confederate Philatelist, July-Sept 2013,  2013 CSA certificate. THIS IS THE EARLIEST RECORDED USE ON COVER. Only four post offices are known to have produced tête-bêche pairs. SCV $20,000. $10,000.

Capt. George Hillyer (1835 –1927) left his law practice to join the Confederate Army and raised a company known as the Hillyer Rifles in June 1861.  He served as a Captain and fourth regimental commander of Company C, 9th Georgia Infantry Regiment, Longstreet’s I Corps, Hood’s Division, Army of Northern Virginia.  He lost over half his men at Gettysburg and made the official report on actions at the famed “Wheatfield” 2 July 1863. From 1870 to 1