Confederacy, 1862, 2¢ Green, Gutter Pair in Horizontal Strip of 5. Interpanneau gutter between first and second stamps at left, large margins to just slightly in at lower left & upper right, tied by three strikes of "Holly Springs, Miss./Dec. 31" (1862) cds on cover from Lieut. John J. Carter (Minden Rangers, served under General Nathan Bedford Forrest) to his wife in Minden La., the edges of the cover and a small part of the strip along top and upper right have been expertly pressed to flatten wrinkles present when this cover was discovered, Very Fine appearance and a major Confederate General Issue Rarity, featured in the Confederate Philatelist (July-August 1998) (Pictured in Monroe Book, pg. 63). Scott No. 3  Estimate $7,500 - 10,000. THE 2¢ GREEN GUTTER MULTIPLES ARE EXCEEDINGLY RARE, ONLY TWO EXAMPLES ARE KNOWN TO EXIST, BOTH IN STRIPS OF 5, PAYING THE 10¢ LETTER RATE.The Confederate Congressional Act of February 23, 1861, prescribed a 2¢ special rate for "letters placed in any post office, not for transmission but for delivery only" (drop letters) and "for newspapers, unsealed circulars, handbills, engravings, pamphlets, periodicals and magazines, not exceeding three ounces in weight." The first stamp issued to satisfy the 2¢ special rate was the Hoyer & Ludwig 2¢ green lithograph, which has the portrait of Andrew Jackson. Approximately 2,000,000 of these stamps were issued; the earliest known date of usage is March 21, 1862. When the general postage rate for a regular letter was increased from 5¢ to 10¢ on July 1, 1862, some Confederate postal customers used a strip of five 2¢ stamps to prepay the new 10¢ rate. Such usage is extremely rare. Lieutenant Carter was a member of a cavalry unit locally known as the "Minden Rangers, Louisiana Squadron" which was a part of Brigadier General Frank Crawford Armstrong's Cavalry Brigade in the Army of the West. Also, he was at one time a member of General Albert Rust's personal escort. Later in the war, he was attached to Company E, 18th Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry. $0 (Image)