Lot
4441 
Wells Fargo & Co., Express, Steamboat, blue oval river mail handstamp (Leutzinger type 2-7) on 3¢ red Nesbitt buff entire with printed company frank addressed to Stockton Ca., Very Fine. Estimate $300 - 400.
Although the contract for Route 5062 Stockton to San Francisco was awarded to Aspinwall’s Pacific Mail Steamship Company in September 1851, Wells Fargo seems to have been more successful in gaining the steamboat traffic within California. A total of six different "Wells Fargo Express Steamboat" handstamps are recorded as being used between 1853 and 1854.