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Moderators, I hope that I've placed this in the correct research questions folder, if not, please move it to the correct location.
Good Day All,
As some people know, period letter writing is a hobby of mine, and now with more members, I'm finding the need of a better variety of stamps. I've read and researched though two books that I found useful to finding what was actually used then, such as the catalogue The Dr. Howard P. Green Collection of Confederate State Covers, and the book Civil War Paper Items. Thanks to the kindness and generosity of Mr. Noah Briggs, I'm well taken care of with the US stamps, however the selection of Confederate stamps leaves me with questions, not to mention the surprise of just how many different CSA regional stamps can be found today.
Since I'll have people writing in many different interpretive characters, my plan is to provide a few different stamps for the various regions of the South, such as; the Baton Rouge LA., 5 cent green and carmine, Maltese Cross border stamp, the Mobile Alabama, 2 cent and 5 cent, large center star with four-clover corner black stamp, the Petersburg VA 5 cent with dark red (and this is a large sized stamp), the Uniontown AL large block letter - CSA - 5 cent PA (5) ID stamp, and last the 5 cent 'blue local' Jeff Davis cameo stamp.
My question to you is, is anyone producing these stamps, and would I violate the law if I simply copy these stamps from the letter sheets for period use? I don't want to sell these, simply give them away for people to use for period letters. My idea is to use CorelDRAW or photopaint to improve and remove the cancellation. I suppose this is what other vendors have done, simply copy, reproduce, and sell them? I already give the paper, envelopes, pens and pencils, and federal stamps away to those in our SFACSAS group, now I just need to include CSA postage. To complete the cancellation to look period correct, I intend to have some rubber stamps made that look like the originals, in this way, no matter what stamps people put on their envelopes, I can cancel them, and forward their mail.
Another thing that I've noticed is that it was not uncommon to find both US and CSA stamps sent on the same envelope, and with the cost of postage going as high as 20 cents. Here is another example, Priscilla Bond writes in a letter from Crescent Place, LA, June 1861, to her parents in Baltimore Maryland, "It is with difficulty I write, even under the bar, The postage raised, to ten cts, beside three cts for "United States" postage." So it would seem that despite distance, it wasn't uncommon for people to have both national stamps on envelopes coming and going between sides. Has anyone else here done any research on this subject, and can you offer me some advice?
Good Day All,
As some people know, period letter writing is a hobby of mine, and now with more members, I'm finding the need of a better variety of stamps. I've read and researched though two books that I found useful to finding what was actually used then, such as the catalogue The Dr. Howard P. Green Collection of Confederate State Covers, and the book Civil War Paper Items. Thanks to the kindness and generosity of Mr. Noah Briggs, I'm well taken care of with the US stamps, however the selection of Confederate stamps leaves me with questions, not to mention the surprise of just how many different CSA regional stamps can be found today.
Since I'll have people writing in many different interpretive characters, my plan is to provide a few different stamps for the various regions of the South, such as; the Baton Rouge LA., 5 cent green and carmine, Maltese Cross border stamp, the Mobile Alabama, 2 cent and 5 cent, large center star with four-clover corner black stamp, the Petersburg VA 5 cent with dark red (and this is a large sized stamp), the Uniontown AL large block letter - CSA - 5 cent PA (5) ID stamp, and last the 5 cent 'blue local' Jeff Davis cameo stamp.
My question to you is, is anyone producing these stamps, and would I violate the law if I simply copy these stamps from the letter sheets for period use? I don't want to sell these, simply give them away for people to use for period letters. My idea is to use CorelDRAW or photopaint to improve and remove the cancellation. I suppose this is what other vendors have done, simply copy, reproduce, and sell them? I already give the paper, envelopes, pens and pencils, and federal stamps away to those in our SFACSAS group, now I just need to include CSA postage. To complete the cancellation to look period correct, I intend to have some rubber stamps made that look like the originals, in this way, no matter what stamps people put on their envelopes, I can cancel them, and forward their mail.
Another thing that I've noticed is that it was not uncommon to find both US and CSA stamps sent on the same envelope, and with the cost of postage going as high as 20 cents. Here is another example, Priscilla Bond writes in a letter from Crescent Place, LA, June 1861, to her parents in Baltimore Maryland, "It is with difficulty I write, even under the bar, The postage raised, to ten cts, beside three cts for "United States" postage." So it would seem that despite distance, it wasn't uncommon for people to have both national stamps on envelopes coming and going between sides. Has anyone else here done any research on this subject, and can you offer me some advice?