Arago: Postal Employee Tokens

Owney received this medal from the postal workers of the Cheyenne, Wyoming post office on April 12, 1893. At that time, that office had a postmaster, three clerks, and six city letter carriers. The reverse side of the medal advertises the city of “Fair” Gallatin, Montana, nicknamed the “Egypt of America” by promoters for its fertile and productive soil. The medal may have been handy when Owney was visiting Cheyenne’s postal workers, who scratched and engraved their message into one side of the medal. The city of Gallatin is just over Wyoming’s northern border, while Cheyenne is in the far south-eastern corner.