The "A" is a station mark where the card was received. This thread has other examples:
https://goscf.com/t/71937These early postal cards have numerous plate varieties in addition to poor printing quality. It would be useful to see a close-up scan of just the stamped area of this card to see how closely it matches the S6d ("ONE CENT" re-entry) variety listed in the United Postal Stationery Society's catalog on postal cards.