Private transactions either deploy contracts or call contract functions.
Ether transfer transactions cannot be private.
## Methods for Private Transactions
A private transaction creates a [Privacy Marker Transaction](../Explanation/Private-Transaction-Processing.md) in addition to the private transaction itself.
Use [`eth_getTransactionReceipt`](../../Reference/Pantheon-API-Methods.md#eth_gettransactionreceipt) to
get the transaction receipt for the Privacy Maker Transaction and [`eea_getTransactionReceipt`](../../Reference/Pantheon-API-Methods.md#eea_gettransactionreceipt)
to get the transaction receipt for the private transaction.
Use [`eth_getTransactionByHash`](../../Reference/Pantheon-API-Methods.md#eth_gettransactionbyhash) to
get the Privacy Marker Transaction with the transaction hash returned when submitting the private transaction.
Use [`eea_getPrivateTransacton`](../../Reference/Pantheon-API-Methods.md#eea_getprivatetransaction)
to get the private transaction with the `input` value from the Privacy Marker Transaction.
Separate private states are maintained for each [privacy group](../Explanation/Privacy-Overview.md#privacy-groups) so
the account nonce for an account is specific to the privacy group. That is, the nonce for account A for
privacy group ABC is different to the account nonce for account A for privacy group AB. Use
[`eea_getTransactionCount`](../../Reference/Pantheon-API-Methods.md#eea_gettransactioncount) to get
the account nonce for an account for the specified privacy group.
!!! note
If sending a large number of private transactions, you may need to calculate the nonce for the account