Lot
1159 
Austin, Nev. Sep 5, partial black cds on cover franked with 1863 2¢ Blackjack (73) cancelled by target killer, with manuscript "Due 2" (the correct rate of 3¢ for mailing to California was underpaid by 1¢, which was doubled to 2¢ due for the unpaid portion) addressed to Sacramento, Cal.; original enclosure datelined "Bunker Hill August 31st/64" and reads, in part, "…You ask me if I have really struck it rich. I wil tell you. I can make grub & pay my assessments & that is more than every one can do here you bet…pretty good paying thing if it was not I would draw out at once for some of the owners are God dam Rebs. They are the meanest Devils out of hell…it costs me about nine dollars a week for grub & devilish tough at that, it is a very healthy place Vermont cannot beat it for any thing but girls. They are verry scarse I have not seen but two women for five months nor had a square meel since I left Virginia City…J.W. Eggelston,"; cover edge wear with tattered lower right corner, F.-V.F. and an excellent letter, A "blackjack" use from Nevada Territory is rare, this was the subject of an article in the Postal History Journal (Jan. 1873) by Dr. Milgram.Estimate $300 - 400.
Bunker Hill (the dateline of this letter) was a very small offshoot mining camp located in Kingston canyon, 27 miles south of Austin, on the east slope of the Toiyabe Mountain. It was founded early in 1863 and existed until the latter part of 1864, when the new town of Kingston was founded some two miles down from Bunker Hill at the mouth of Kingston Canyon.
Realized: $450