As the Pony Express Mail service existed briefly in 1860 and 1861 there are consequently very few examples of surviving Pony Express mail today. Also contributing to the scarcity of surviving Pony Express mail was the fact that the cost to send a 1/2 ounce letter was $5.00 at the beginning, a costly sum in those days and mostly unaffordable to the general public. By the end period of the Pony Express, the price had dropped to $1.00 per 1/2 ounce. Even the $1.00 rate was considered a lot of money ($26 in 2012 U.S. Dollars) just to mail one letter in those days. As this mail service was also a frontier enterprise, removed from the general population back east, along with the largely unaffordable rates, there are consequently few pieces of surviving Pony Express mail in the hands of collectors and museums today. Presently there are only 250 known examples of Pony Express mail.
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