1862 2c Andrew Jackson, Confederate States, Green, Soft Paper, Hoyer & Ludwig

When the Confederate postal system began operating in 1861, Postmaster General John Reagan wanted stamps produced by steel engraving, the same secure method the US Post Office used, specifically to guard against counterfeiting. No printer in the South could manage that kind of work on short notice, so Reagan settled for the Richmond lithography firm Hoyer & Ludwig, which became the first company ever contracted to print Confederate postage.

Hoyer & Ludwig's original order called for three denominations, a 5 cent Jefferson Davis and 10 cent Thomas Jefferson released first, followed by this 2 cent value showing Andrew Jackson. The 2 cent rate covered drop letters, circulars, and newspapers, uses far less common than standard first class mail, so this stamp lagged behind the other two and did not reach post offices until several months later. The choice of Jackson as subject carries an odd twist of history, since as president decades earlier he had forcefully opposed any state's claim to defy federal authority, a stance the Confederacy itself was built against.

Charles Ludwig engraved the Jackson portrait directly onto a lithographic stone, and the firm's limited equipment and inconsistent ink supply gave the resulting stamps a wide range of green shades, a common trait among Hoyer & Ludwig's output that collectors still study closely today. Around the same time, a shortage of green pigment forced the Confederate Post Office to switch the 5 cent stamp to blue ink, but because demand for the 2 cent value stayed comparatively low, this stamp continued to be printed in green throughout its run. It also holds a small distinction in Confederate postal history, since it was the last Confederate stamp ever produced by lithography before the government moved to steel engraved plates the following year.