3c Dull Red, Ty. III (26). Two pairs and horizontal strip of four applied on flaps, tied by well-struck "Mobile Ala. Apr. 27, 1861" double-circle datestamps on blue folded letter from Confederate Alabama to Barcelona, Spain, red "N. York Am. Pkt. May 4" circular datestamp, red "3" handstamp, also "8Rs" due handstamp, receiving datestamp, faint vertical file fold affects two stamps, opened for display

VERY FINE. A STRIKING AND RARE USE OF EIGHT 3-CENT U.S. 1857 ISSUE STAMPS FROM CONFEDERATE MOBILE, ALABAMA, TO BARCELONA, SPAIN.

Alabama was one of the first states to secede from the Union and was admitted to the Confederacy on February 4, 1861. By the time this letter was sent, tensions were heating up between North and South. The first shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter just two weeks prior to the sending of this letter. Postal relations would be severed after May 31. The contents, in Spanish, discuss methods of shipping cotton out of the Confederacy, since a Federal blockade of Southern ports had been declared.

The 3c overpayment of the 21c rate meant that the letter was treated as fully prepaid to England. The recipient was charged the equivalent of the postage due from England to Spain. It was treated as a double-weight letter from England to Spain, and so was charged 4 reales for the postage plus 4 reales penalty for being unpaid.

Ex Grunin and Myers. Discussed in an article in the Confederate Philatelist by Brian Green (Jan.-Feb. 1977)

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