VERY FINE. ONE OF THE FINEST OF THE FIVE OR SIX KNOWN EXAMPLES OF THE RINGGOLD PROVISIONAL.
The Crown survey and our own records of the Ringgold provisional contain five full entires, one of which is repaired and another of which is a late usage with 5c Local Prints paying postage. A piece is also recorded and there may be a sixth entire.
EXTREMELY FINE AND RARE. ONE OF ONLY FOUR EXAMPLES OF THE RARE SELMA ALABAMA PROVISIONAL ON CORNER CARD COVER RECORDED IN CROWN.
Crown notes only fifteen examples recorded in total, four of which are on corner card covers. This example, from a known correspondence, is unlisted in the census
EXTREMELY FINE. ONE OF THE FINEST OF THE APPROXIMATELY TWENTY KNOWN COVERS BEARING THE SPARTANBURG POSTMASTER'S PROVISIONAL.
Most of the recorded Spartanburg Type I provisionals (thin numeral at center) are cut in a circular shape. Some varieties exist, including Scott 78X1a (value omitted). Only one pair is known, used on a cover from the Dean correspondence.
Corporal Edward J. Dean and the Dean correspondence were the subjects of an article by the late Daniel M. Gilbert, published in The Confederate Philatelist (No. 235, p. 28). We have record of an 1899 letter to N. P. Strauss of Henderson N.C., which identifies him as the original purchaser and the Dean family as the source of the correspondence.
Ex Emerson, Brooks and Weatherly.