Five and ten-cent stamps were distributed in the fall of 1861, but there was still a need of a two-cent stamp to pay the drop letter rate and for newspapers, circulars and periodicals. The central motif is a portrait of Andrew Jackson, designed and engraved on metal by Charles Ludwig of Hoyer & Ludwig. There is a wide range of green shades among the issued stamps, which helps distinguish the various printings of this first issue. Based on incomplete original records, there were 738, 000 stamps printed from one lithographic stone. A full printed sheet consisted of two panes of one hundred stamps, each arranged in two blocks of fifty (10X5) taken from the fifty-subject transfer stone with a wide vertical gutter between panes. Plating completed. They were printed on thick, porous, wove paper, and were imperforate. The most typical use is for the two-cent drop letter and circular rates, as well as the occasional strip of five stamps to pay the ten-cent letter rate after July 1, 1862. The earliest recorded date of use is March 21, 1862. Color shades are green, bright yellow green, dark green, and the scarce bright emerald green. Major print varieties are known.

Catalog Numbers are from the Confederate States of America Catalog and Handbook of Stamps and Postal History