^Lot 471 The Postal Telegraph Company,

NY. 188-. Proof. Odd shs, green. Vignette of eagle with spread wings. Proof printed on india paper and mounted on card stock. In the 1880s, the Postal Telegraph Company was headed by John Mackay, who had made a fortune at the Comstock Lode. Mackay did what many of his telegraph predecessors did in the 1850s, he created a network by buying out existing bankrupt firms and merging them into a network with large enough economies of scale to complete with Western Union. Postal Telegraph never challenged Western Union's market dominance, but it did control over 10-20% of the market at various time. This is possibly one of the first design types of Postal Telegraph certificates. Proof printed on india paper and mounted on card stock. Unique in archive. HBNC. XF.