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The Alexandria Postmaster Provisional, known as the “Blue Boy”, was issued by postmaster Daniel Bryan in 1847. On November 24, 1847, James Wallace Hooff used this specimen to send a love letter to his forbidden lover and second cousin, Jannett H. Brown of Richmond Virginia. The two, who lived within blocks of each other, were looked down upon for their affairs. Hooff even wrote on the bottom of his letter, “Burn as usual,” an indication that they were writing in secrecy. The two eventually married and had three daughters. Their eldest daughter, Mary Fawcett, later found the envelope bearing the provisional in a sewing box in 1907, and sold it to a stamp dealer for US$3,000.
One of the rarest stamps in the world, the Blue Boy sold for $1 million in 1981 and is estimated to be worth many times that now.
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