[5] The Blue Boy remains affixed to its original envelope, and sold for $1.18 million in 2019, which is among the highest known prices paid for a philatelic item.

[7] However, Congress failed to authorize the United States Post office to issue postage stamps to pre-pay these rates.

Both types conform to same general circular design, which presents an outer rim of rosettes surrounding a smaller ring of text: "ALEXANDRIA "* POST OFFICE.

Hoof was secretly courting Brown and, at the bottom of the letter, had instructed her to “Burn as usual.” The pair eventually married and had three children.

[4] Since then, the cover has changed hands several times, and its owners have included Alfred H. Caspary and Josiah K. Lilly, Jr.[12] In 1981, a private collector acquired the cover through the philatelic auctioneer David Feldman for one million dollars, a record at the time.

[6] Given that the Blue Boy was a provisional and local—rather than regular and national—issue, there is room for disagreement over whether it fully merits placement in the elite category of one-of-a-kind stamps alongside the Treskilling Yellow of Sweden and the British Guiana one cent magenta.