Quote from Pioneer on October 6, 2011, 11:28 pm

The United States Express Company was a privately owned secure transport company that existed between 1854 and 1914 and was headquartered in New York City. This firm was involved in secure parcel freight and served many northern US states between New England and Colorado. The company had bomb and fire-proof safes that they transported valuable items in, and the company worked in concert with the US railroads for secure delivery. Their business grew as they became more trusted for secure delivery than the US postal service. Due to World War I in 1914, the company was merged with the Railway Express Agency (REA). The REA operated through 1975 when it was split up, with a key piece of the business becoming the modern day United Parcel Service (UPS). The US Express Company was founded by Edwin Barber Morgan (1806-1881), the first president of Wells Fargo & Co., and the director of American Express. Morgan was a US congressman from the Finger Lakes region of central/western New York state who served three terms in Congress. He had many friends in the railroad business and was very much associated with the expansion of Wells Fargo into overland delivery. US Express Co had several presidents/CEOs but was eventually influenced in the early 1900s by US Senator Thomas Collier Platt (1833-1910) of New York. Platt is likely responsible for the pushing the US Mint to create and eventually release the so called dollars HK-735,736, and 736a, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the company. Records indicate that 100 silver medals (HK-736a) and more than 20,000 bronze/brass medals (HK-735/HK-736) were made. I am uncertain as to the exact percentages between brass (735) and bronze (736) medals. This medal parallels the 1902 Wells Fargo (HK-296) so called dollar given the business connections between these companies. I also find it interesting that American Express had serious connections with this firm, and just before this medal was released, a financial-services related so-called dollar HK-297/8 (NY Stock Exchange) was released. I often think about the relationship between all these medals and HK-513/4, celebrating the Butterfield Overland Stage, a key transport and delivery business that was eventually abandoned due to railroad expansion.