748

Wells Fargo Express Wax Sealer NV - Genoa,Douglas County - 2012aug - General Americana

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:1,250.00 USD Estimated At:2,500.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Wells Fargo Express Wax Sealer NV - Genoa,Douglas County - 2012aug - General Americana
Invoicing and lot pick up will NOT be available at the live auction.
A form of “stamp” used by Wells Fargo to place a protected seal on a (usually money) package. Other Wells Fargo handstamps were used only for mail, and the Handstamps of Wells Fargo & Co. 1852-1895 by John Leutzinger only carries reference to the handstamps used for mail and none for seals on mail packets. The wax sealer in this lot would have been used on the back of a mailed envelope with an impression from the stamp made into a dollop of molten wax. In this manner, the envelope seal could not be visibly broken without being noticed. The Genoa office was one of the first to open. It had been one of the key locales for the Pioneer Express of Snowshoe Thompson in the 1850s. Western Wells Fargo general manger Louis McLane bought the Pioneer Express line and later sold it to Wells Fargo in 1864. By 1866, Wells Fargo was using their own name, and stamping mailed items with their Wells Fargo handstamps and, theoretically, also stamping the backs of envelopes carrying money with the was sealer stamps. According to Leutzinger, Genoa was among the earliest forms of handstamps used, that of “Group 3”. Genoa was an important locale for the stage lines, because in 1859, before the Comstock rush, it was a focal point of the few residents in Carson Valley and surrounds, and was the only community located along that portion of the trail to Placerville on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. Lot: A 3.75" tall carved black wooden handled wax sealer: "WELLS FARGO EXPRESS/ 461/ GENOA, NEV." - Jacobitz Collection -59699