CHARLESTON S.C. NOV 16 circular datestamp with large bold (due) “2” (type H, CV $3,500 as Penny Post) on local cover to Miss Mary Mahoney No 8 Montague Street Charleston SC with scarce manuscript directive at lower left “Care of Penny Post.”

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.