US U10, 3¢ red Nesbitt entire used with two strikes of different types of RICHMOND Va. JUL (1864) circular datestamps (Powell types 5f and 6m) and matching DUE 10 (type P), addressed to Miss Fannie Dickens, Treasury Department, Columbia, S. Carolina. Postmarks. The US postal stationery was not recognized as valid for postage and thus the hand stamped DUE 10 was added to assess the postage. This is not a soldier's due cover as it has no endorsement. Back flap opening tears but otherwise Very Fine and wonderfully unusual cover. Will be topic of an article. Ex Harry Muldrow. $450.

Frances (Fanny) Margaret Dickins (1842-1914) was employed by the Confederate Treasury Department. In 1863, she moved to Columbia to work with a branch of the Confederate Treasury. She is one of the ladies who signed Confederate banknotes under “For Treasurer” while in Richmond, but apparently not after she moved to Columbia. Her father, Francis Asbury Dickins (1804-1879), was a Washington, D.C. attorney who was a Confederate sympathizer imprisoned three times during the war on suspicion of aiding the South. The entire family had an interesting history easily found online.