Horses
USA - Delaware State Quarter


Obverse
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Coin Details

  

Set Details
Coin Description:
Grade: NGC MEDAL MS 68
Owner: brg5658
 
Set Category: Thematic & Topical Coins
Set Name: Horses
Slot Name: USA - Delaware State Quarter
Research: Currently not available

Owner's Description

Purchased on 9/14/2011. This medal depicts the historic Concord Coach, built in Concord, New Hampshire. This coach was an important part of American History, along with the hundreds of horses that pulled them across the Western U.S. to deliver mail and carry passengers. Beginning in 1858, The Butterfield Overland Mail coach service received a contract with the U.S. Mail service to deliver mail from St. Louis to San Francisco within a 25 day time frame. The equipment used to accomplish this feat was the 'Concord' stagecoach - produced by the Abbot-Downing Co. of Concord, New Hampshire - drawn by relays of horses. The Concords came in various sizes including 6, 9, and 12 seats - and were of heavy construction that could carry another 12 men on the roof. These coaches were usually pulled by 4 - 6 horses. Different sources state that the company had 100 - 250 Concord stage coaches, 1500 - 1800 horses and mules, 750 - 800 men - of whom about 150 were drivers and were sometimes referred to as ''whips' or 'jehus' (Jehu is an old Biblical term for 'wagon driver'). By the early 1860s the Butterfield Overland Mail service was in great debt, and by 1864 was out of business. By this time, the westward route has been split into two pieces. The first leg from St. Louis to Denver was run by Ben Holladay (described as a devoted, diligent, enterprising man, and later known as the "Stagecoach King"). The second leg from Denver to San Francisco was covered by a consortium of Butterfield's partners to whom he had owed large amounts of money. Namely, Henry Wells and William Fargo (of Wells Fargo fame). By 1866, Wells Fargo commandeered the monopoly over long-distance overland stage coach and mail service with a massive web of relay stations, forts, livestock, men, and stage coaches. To this day, the Concord coach pulled by its team of horses is the symbol of the Wells Fargo Bank.

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