Lot Details

74X1, Liberty, Virginia 5c Black, uncancelled single on cover to Fincastle, Virginia, with "Liberty Va. 10 Jul" postmark at center, cover and stamp with some water stains, sealed tear at top left and slightly reduced at left, stamp tiny bit of blue ink at bottom right, still fine and rare, one of just two recorded examples of this stamp used from Liberty and one of the great Confederate States rarities, 2022 Philatelic Foundation certificate (Scott $25,000) The Liberty, Virginia provisional stamp is something of an anomaly. Only three examples are known, all used on cover: two from Liberty, Virginia (July 7 and July 10), and a cover from Salem, Virginia (December 6, last sold in the "Erivan" Collection Sale 3). As all three stamps are identical it appears they were made individually by impressing printers type by hand. Liberty is the historic name for Bedford, Virginia (the name was changed in 1890), which sits approximately halfway between Salem and Lynchburg, a distance of about 60 miles. Construction on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, which extended westward from Lynchburg, began in 1850, and service to Bristol, Virginia (in the western part of the state) began in 1856. During the Civil War the line was extremely important to the movement of troops and supplies. The fact that two cities linked by the railroad both used this stamp seems unlikely to be coincidental; it has been suggested that "the provisional stamps were available briefly to persons who sent their letters to the Liberty (or Salem) offices from outlying areas, as a means to indicate prepayment in the absence of coins or government stamps" (R.A. Siegel Sale 815, Kilbourne Collection, 1999). Provenance: Count Philipp von Ferrary (Gilbert Sale 4, 1922) Arthur Hind (Charles J. Phillips Sale 1, 1933) Alfred H. Caspary (H.R. Harmer Sale 991, 1956)