The December 9th seminar by Dr. Dean Briggs presented a breath-taking exposure to Florida postal history. As the late Henry Spelman stated, there was only enough material for two or three serious holdings- this seminar showed the best of those. A large number of cover illustrations from the presentation are shown below.
The earliest British period cover from St. Augustine is datelined April 20, 1767 and rated in both sterling and pennyweights. It went via ship to Charleston, where a manuscript ‘Charlestown Ship 2 CT sterling’ was applied. It was then sent on a second ship to Philadelphia where the Philadelphia SL was applied along with a manuscript ‘Sh 6’ (2 dwt in-ship and 4 dwt by land down to Norfolk) under the 1765 Act of George III. Until the Confederate era, the picture captions tell most of the story.
Among the Confederate items shown were two 7-star flag covers – one showing Confederate usage of the 3 cent 1857 from Fernandina, a second showing the Pensacola provisional 106XU2 fancy handstamped PAID/5 and a /Richmond advertised ‘2’ box; two 9-star flag covers; one the Dietz catalog listed Monticello 1863 Type III provisional; the other a 9-star flag 1863 Richmond held-for-postage cover with its boxed FORWARDED/10 to Gainesville and on to Orange Spring, FL. There was the unique Micanopy, FL 105 XU1 provisional; the unique Little River ‘paid in money’ cover; the revalued Paid 5 to 10 handstamped PAID cover; and an unlisted Jacksonville Feb 23rd Confederate usage of a 3 cent 1857 to Hampton VA and forwarded on to Richmond and advertised.
In Confederate general issue covers used from Florida, he showed a 2-color cannon cover with a #1 from Jacksonville to Mobile; a #4
combo with #6 from Brookville to Tallahassee; a #5 cover from Welaka to the St. John’s Rangers near Jacksonville; a strip of 10 of #7 from Madison FL; and a frameline 8/27/63 cover from Madison, FL to Macon, GA.
Among the special purpose Confederate covers, there was a blockade cover to Tallahassee via Charleston in September 1862 sent per steamer Antonica, and what seemed to be a rare examined civilian flag-of-truce cover from Bayport, FL to Rye, NH.
