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Scott Number: DI13 Collection Reference No. for Communications: 5678

Estimated Retail Value: $ 350.00 What is this?

Cancel Method: Handstamped - Oval

Cancel Color: Blue

Cancel Date: June 18, 1868

Cancel or Company Type: Metallurgical/Mining

Company: E. Ruhling & Co.

City: Gold Hill

State: Nevada

A large format (approximately 14-in x 6-in) 'Memorandum of Gold and Silver Bullion' from the Assay Office of E. Ruhling & Co. in Gold Hill, Nevada, recorded June 18, 1868. The stamp, sadly somewhat damaged, is State Revenue Catalog #DI-13, compound roulette 10x15.

Mike Mahler, in his article in the August 2019 issue of American Stamp Dealer & Collector magazine, displays an identical document dated several weeks prior (although he says his example is rouletted 10, not compound), and states the following:

Figure 6 shows a June 1868 report of E. Ruhling & Co. in Gold Hill, the sister city of Virginia City, in the heart of the Comstock, also stamped with the 5-cent dark green rouletted 10. The many details show that 1,006 ounces of 'Petaluma Mill slum,' evidently a bullion bar, was 96.7% silver, worth $1,231.67, and 2% gold for another $407.24, total $1,638.91 before the small loss in assaying. The eye-catching magenta-and-blue printing is probably explained by the imprint 'Trespass Print - Virginia, Nevada.' The shortlived Daily Trespass, published February 1867-October 1868, was named tongue-incheek by owner William J. Forbes, acutely aware that he was 'trespassing' in a field dominated by the celebrated Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. In a competitive job printing market, Forbes evidently offered Ruhling & Co. bicolored printing as an inducement to land the firm's business. This is the sole-recorded example of this remarkable form.

If you have any information or comments about this cancel or stamp, please email me.