Located on Last Chance Hill, Aurora, Mono County. No. 55 issued for five shares issued to R. G. Surdam on May 2nd, 1863. Signed by Secretary E. W. Kuster and President B. F. Porter. Not cancelled. Black print on creme paper with black border; yellow underprint "240,000". Printed by Robbins & Co. Print, 417 Clay St. San Francisco. Measures 9.75 x 5.5". Vignette of woman at center by Loomis and vignette at left a man with a team of oxen (partially covered by 25 cent US IR Warehouse stamp). Rare. In the early days of the Comstock, Harvey Harris, a well-known assayer in California with offices in San Francisco, Sacramento and Marysville was busy scouting new locations for expanding his assaying business in the Nevada Territory. Aurora was on the border with California and was county seat to both Mono County, CA and Esmeralda County, Nevada Territory. In late 1864, after the boundary survey prior to Nevada statehood in October of 1864, Aurora was firmly identified as part of Nevada. Harris opened up branch offices first in Aurora (June 5, 1861) and then Carson City in the Nevada Territory by the late summer of 1861. He hired Ernst (Edward) W. Kuster--the E.W. Kuster that signed this stock-- to head his branch assay office in Aurora and later sold out to him. Later consolidated by the Real del Monte Mining Company, which took over the highly productive "old" Aurora claims on Last Chance Hill in 1877. [Ref: EMJ, Vol. 27] Aurora Nevada 1863