Quote from Pioneer on August 9, 2011, 11:35 pm

As outlined in the 2007 revision of the So Called Dollar Book by Hibler/Kappen, HK-514 (the Butterfield Overland Stage and Tipton Centennial) celebrates the anniversary the famous overland mail route in which the Butterfield Stage carried mail from the midwest (Tipton Missouri) to San Francisco California between 1858-1861. The overland mail route avoided the typical mail passage by boat to Panama, overland panama route, and then second boat up to California. An excellent description of this history can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfield_Overland_Mail Attached is an image of one I own. What interests me are the parallels between HK-514 and other SCDs, like HK-296 (Wells Fargo), as John W Butterfield sold ownership in this mail route to Wells Fargo. The route was discontinued by the US Government due to the Civil War and foreseen conflicts along the route. Note the similar themes between these two pieces, with the Wells Fargo piece depicting more of the battles with the American Indians that occurred during the Apache Wars (see nice discussion on Jeff's website under HK-120). These overland routes became less necessary in 1869 with the transcontinental railroad (HK-12). A potentially cheaper version of a medal celebrating the railroad is Turner-23 (Golden Spike Centennial Medal issued by the US Mint in 1969). Note that the Butterfield Overland Mail Route was replaced with the Central Overland Route: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Overland_Route ...which was part of the Pony Express, with numerous medals issued over the years for this 18-month accomplishment (HK-582-585, 588-589) that was made irrelevant by the telegraph. Does anyone have any more details on all this that they would like to share?