The earliest postal courier, appeared more than a century ago in the United states.
At the end of 1840s, the gold rush in California attracted a large number of residents of the east to the West. In just a few short years, the population of California has increased by almost a thousand times, forming a prosperous western region. However, California and the eastern United States are more than 2 thousand kilometers apart, postal service very inconvenient, between the two things generally sent letters to the carriage a few weeks to reach.
In 1860, a California senator, Wells lobbied the transport company in a transport company in the eastern United States, to start a called "horse express" ems. The company is trying to map by looking for a shortcut, carefully designed a 1900 mile long route as Eastern Express route, which every 15 miles is a station, the station equipped with strong horse, Messenger riders with the fastest speed, station to station transfer the horse to send mail. In order to run the horse express mail, the operator employed more than one hundred skilled young people as the rider riding. These guys day and night riding a horse on a deserted road along the way, there is always the danger of unexpected, such as sand, beasts and unfriendly natives, highway robbers etc.. The rider must have utterly loyal heart, extraordinary courage to act as the task, they are allowed when necessary by any means to protect a mail parcel.
In the first implementation of the "horse express", each rider will take all equipment including a copy of the "Bible", a sword, a horn, a long guns and pistols. Since the extra weight of each point will affect the speed of the horse, so soon the rider's equipment is reduced to a pistol. Each rider can hold 20 pounds of mail parcels.
As with the horse express business, Wells company was issued a special stamp for express mail. The stamps issued in early 1861, a par value of $par "horse express" and a postman rider rides a horse hooves galloping horse pattern. This medal by the Private Companies issued a stamp is a rare product. At that time the ordinary letter to 8 weeks to send. The "horse express" is much faster, so the "horse express" stamps at that time became the treasure.
In October 1861, the "horse express mail services to complete the final round, this is because of the United States Department has established a wired contact mail from the horse tired become history, but for the world postal history written an important page.