90c Blue (39). Deep rich color, wide margins, Savannah, Ga circular datestamp cancel with "Nov." of 1860 date clearly visible

VERY FINE AND CHOICE. AN EXTREMELY RARE EXAMPLE OF THE 90-CENT 1860 ISSUE USED FROM SAVANNAH, GEORGIA.

The 90c stamp was issued in 1860, along with the 24c and 30c values, all of which were needed to prepay high international letter rates established by various postal treaties. The basic 24c and 30c rates to England, France and Germany created a volume of mail franked with those values. However, the 90c saw much more limited use, partly due to the rates in effect, but more because of the American Civil War. When supplies of current postage stamps were declared invalid in the South and ultimately demonetized by the Federal government, the 90c had been in use for only one year. For this reason, genuinely cancelled copies are scarce, and covers bearing the 90c are extremely rare.

Lincoln's election on November 6, 1860, the month when this stamp was used, set off an insurrection in the pro-slavery Southern states. Georgia seceded from the Union on January 18, 1861, and postal relations were severed starting June 1. This use from Savannah in the short period before Georgia seceded and the stamps were declared invalid for postage is a rare postal artifact.

With 2002 and 2006 P.F. certificates

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