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1884.] letters in blue. The lettering was executed by hand, and the stamp, on the whole, is very ungraceful and inartistic, as will be seen by the illustration.

The Livingston stamp, also from the State of Alabama, shows real artistic taste in the design, and is in fact one of the best-designed stamps issued by the Confederacy. It was a fine lithograph, and was impressed in blue on white paper of an extra fine manufacture. The stamp was evidently the work of a thorough artist. The design is unique. The large figure 5 rests on a shield supported by an oak and laurel branch; above appears a many-rayed star. A border surrounds the entire design, and is inscribed "Paid" above, "Cents" below, and "Livingston Post-Office" at the sides. At each angle rests a cherub.

A five-cent stamp was issued for Kingston, Tennessee, post-office in May, 1861, It is something like the Livingston stamp, the design being less artistic. The appears in the centre, with "cents" below in curved lines. The whole is surrounded by an outer frame of pearls. The stamp was printed on white paper in green ink. At various times during the year 1861, provisional stamps were also issued by the postmasters of Charleston, South Carolina (five varieties); Columbia, South Carolina; Fredericksburg, Virginia; Jackson, Mississippi; Lynchburg, Virginia; Marion, Virginia; Macon, Georgia; Memphis, Tennessee (three varieties); Pittsylvania, Virginia; Ringgold, Georgia; Uniontown, Virginia, and two or three other towns. These conclude the issues of the Confederate provisional stamps.

It was toward the close of 1861 that the Confederate government produced its first set of stamps for general use throughout the Confederate States. This first issue was printed during the fall and winter of 1861 and the spring of 1862, and was engraved at a large expense by a bank-note company. The set comprised five stamps, of the following denominations and colors:

On the two-cent stamp appeared a fair likeness of Andrew Jackson. The head of Jefferson Davis was engraved on the two five-cent stamps, the design being made from a fine photograph furnished by Mr. Davis. The ten-cent stamps bore the head of James Madison.

In 1863 the Confederate government issued a new and more complete series of postage-stamps, and the dies of the 1861 issue were destroyed by order of President Davis. The new series were of finer design than the original issue, and compare favorably with the well-executed specimens of the postage-stamp of to-day. The 1863 issue consisted of the following:

The head of Calhoun appears upon the one-cent stamp, and is a fair likeness. Jackson's face is on the two-cent stamp; while a portrait of Jefferson Davis, similar to that on the 1861 issue, covers the face of the five- and ten-cent stamps. The head of Washington is on the twenty-cent stamp.

Nearly all the Confederate postage-stamps were destroyed. When the Union soldiers entered the Southern towns, the unused stamps and dies were either destroyed or turned over to the authorities at Washington, together with Confederate notes and bonds. What stamps are now in existence that tell upon their face the story of the war are either preserved in museums or jealously guarded by private collectors.