Engraved card, 6 ¼ x 3 ¼, perhaps an advertisement or promotional item for the Western Bank Note Company, containing the text of the famed Mrs Bixby letter, ca. 1900.  “Western  Bank Note & Eng. Company, Chicago – Western Division of American Bank Note Company” printed on bottom below border. . Portrait of Lincoln above letter. Western Bank Co.was noted for bank notes, stock certificates, bonds for governments and corporations, checks,stamps, Etc.. Back is blank. Old stock, mint and unused.  Much scarcer than the Western Bank Note printing of Lincoln Gettysburg.   The Bixby letter is a brief, consoling message believed to have been written by President Abraham Lincoln in November 1864 to Lydia Parker Bixby, a widow living in Boston, Massachusetts, who was thought to have lost five sons in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Along with the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address, the letter has been praised as one of Lincoln's finest written works and is often reproduced in memorials, media, and print. Controversy surrounds the recipient, the fate of her sons, and the authorship of the letter. Bixby's character has been questioned (including rumored Confederate sympathies), at least two of her sons survived the war, and the letter was possibly written by Lincoln's assistant private secretary, John Hay.  (Ln058) $85.