For what it is worth, I would not buy it unless I was collecting the words "Coast Guard," or old covers. If this is Civil War era, I do not think it would have anything to do with the USRM, USRCS, or USCG. It might mean coast artillery, or simply the USN guarding the coast.
Originally posted by DLNoble: For what it is worth, I would not buy it unless I was collecting the words "Coast Guard," or old covers. If this is Civil War era, I do not think it would have anything to do with the USRM, USRCS, or USCG. It might mean coast artillery, or simply the USN guarding the coast.
Dennis,
I was thinking the year 1857 and Coast Guard seemed not to fit. I'm not a stamp person so I don't know if the seller is saying the stamp is 1857 or the Coast Guard is 1857. If he said 1915 and CG, that would seem to match.
Hmmm.... at the bottom of the postmark, the word "Free" seems to appear. This would be in keeping with other letters of the era that I've seen.... The practice of soldiers and sailors in forward deployed areas being able to use the postal system for free (same thing applies today; I was able to use this system when I was in the Gulf).
However... if this is the case... Why is there a stamp attached?
I did a little research and the letter is inline with 1857. There was and still is a 71st regiment out of NY and the Coast Guard was a company that was on gun boats at the time the word free means that it was pre stamped. So from what i have read the soliders were given the envolpoes with the stamps on them and there were stamped with the "frank" of free. So it is autentic its just relates to the 71st regiment out of NY which appreanatly did gun boat patrols in 1857
