1.5" sepia illustration w/concave metal back stamped w/1898 Pin-Lock (Chicago) patent date. Depicted are four running horses pulling stagecoach across the prairie. In the driver's box sits a woman alongside a man flicking a long whip in the air. In microscopic lettering above the coach's windows is "Overland Mail." In bold text around the rim is "The Overland Mail September 1858-May 1869." Starting as the Butterfield Overland Mail in 1858, the two eastern termini of Memphis and St. Louis met in Fort Smith, Arkansas and continued through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Texas, Arizona, Mexico, and California ending in San Francisco. The Civil War shut down the line but it was revived by the Central Overland Stage Co. and then sold to Wells, Fargo and Co. in 1866. Service concluded w/the completion of the transcontinental railroad on 1869. Exc. Rare.