Wells Fargo Express Label?

This neglected item has been sitting in a glassine for many years waiting for me to get back to it. It measures about 4x2.5 inches, a little longer than a playing card. It has always intrigued me, but I'm not sure what to make of it. Would this be a cargo label? It doesn't appear to show a payment of any kind. Maybe it was more like a directional tag for an item headed out of Sacramento, but it seems like "to" would be more helpful than "from".

Any help is appreciated!

Hi Greg,
Here are some links which call out some of the Express labels of the era.
http://alphabetilately.org/US-trains-00b.html
http://alphabetilately.org/Mosher-4.html

WFCX-L572 or WFCX-L575? Heck apparently there are even forgeries on some of these!
Don

I cannot imagine collecting these express forwarding labels without having the Mosher catalog still available from Eric Jackson for $35.00

The design is listed on pages 180-1 of Mosher. It appears to be a stock type used in several cities and it comes with design variations in the bottom methods of transportation. All are black on orange and assigned a value of $75.00

Thanks everyone! This label is pretty beat up, but is that typical? How much would that affect the value?

One theory on these labels is that they were used on letters that were valuable (e.g. included money). They served as a kind of notification to the agents that the letter was noted when it was placed in the system at the originating office. However, I believe that this is an "accepted theory" that lacks firm proof.

While they have a "catalog value," you probably want to collect them on cover. You can usually find them for a reasonable price in bulk lots of Wells Fargo covers at an auction with western postal history, such as Rumsey: http://www.rumseyauctions.com

I have one in my exhibit here: http://chips.cgpostal.com