Let’s start an Internet Lincoln related items “museum”
BillJones
Posts: 34,596 ✭✭✭✭✭
Talk about the financial troubles for the Springfield Lincoln museum has gotten me to thinking. How about if you start an Internet museum here? I start off with a couple of items.
Here is an 1860 Lincoln ferrotype. 1860 marked the first year that there was wide actual photographs of the candidates appearing on political pieces. It has been claimed that is was the year, but at least one rare piece has cropped up that Millard Filmore on it, probably from 1856.
The Lincoln photo on this piece is printed on a thin piece of iron. That is why these pieces are called “ferrotypes.” These pictures are delicate, and many of them are dark (sometimes were made that way) or crazed or chipped. The value of a ferrotype is in the photo. If the photo is not good, the piece not worth a lot of money.
The photo on this piece was cropped from a photo of Lincoln when he gave a speech at the Cooper Union in New York City on February 27, 1860. That speech really helped to “put him on the map” for northern voters.
Here is an example of an 1860 ferrotype.
And here is the Cooper Union photo.
The photo was "flipped" on the ferrotype to face left instead of right. Here is a "flipped" vertion of the photo.
And a cropping
And since this is a coin forum, here is the "railsplitter" token by Childs of Chicago.
Comments
Just recently purchased and photographed this early die strike beardless Abe which still shows die lathe marks.
1860 Lincoln Presidential Campaign, "Rail Splitter", Dewitt/Sullivan AL-1860-41, King-38, Silvered Brass, 28mm Diameter, Non Holed for Suspension
That is a really nice example of the AL 1860-41 railsplitter token, @Broadstruck. I have also seen a gold plated example of that piece. Here is my more pedestrian example. This one is not outstanding, but it is better than average.
Here is the Lincoln token by Charles Lang, a Worcester, Massachusetts die maker, that explains the basic position Lincoln took on slavery for the 1860 campaign, "Freedom National" / "Slavery Sectional." Lincoln agreed to leave slavery alone in the areas where it already existed, but he refused to allow it to expand to any new territories or states. The variety number is AL 1860-55.
And here is a piece that DeWitt described as an "early Republican token." There are two minor varieties of it, the "incomplete one" and the " complete variety." This is the "incomplete" piece. I have the other, but I guess I don't have a photo of it in my files. The variety number is AL 1860-59.
Bob Auger, my first coin dealer, owned Lincoln Coin Shop in....ugh...Stockton.
When I had mono in 1972, he gave my wife a handful of $5 gold pieces to bring home for me to choose from to cheer me up.
I really liked old Bob.
Thanks... Yeah finding one with most all of the silvering intact is tough as some are missing as much as 80-90%. Some goon is using other chemicals on the silvered ones to get a false cameo contrast on Abe to them into NGC PL holders. The copper version is actually the toughest especially with a lot of red remaining.
Incidently, the fellow holding the wedge for Lincoln is Stephen Douglas. It's a little inside joke.
Great Stuff guys!
© Courtesy State of Illinois, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum. Image is copyrighted. We all know what that means.
Copper (as shown above) J2005/P2062 with two examples known, of different striking qualities as follows:
“These at first glance appear to be incomplete or weakly struck die trials of the Illinois Centennial design. The illustrated piece was examined at the 2002 ANA sale. It appears that some kind of ring surrounded the obverse and reverse dies preventing the outer portions of the planchet from receiving any detail.
These were probably deliberately struck as a collectors item as opposed to being some kind of setup trials for spacing the dies.
Great idea, Bill! This thread could go on forever...
Here are some very attractive Lincoln assassination medalets that I handled recently from the Capt Andrew Zabriskie Collection:
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
My uncle was awarded the Bronze Star in the 84th Railsplitters Division in WWII. Mom has the star and the division patch framed. I will get a photo next time I am there. The patch looks pretty cool. The division was of course named for Lincoln.
@BillJones .... Great idea ...this will be a neat thread to follow. When I was a young teenager, I acquired a hard bound book about Lincoln, and on the front cover, was an early 'photograph' of Lincoln... it was actually put on with adhesive. I really liked that book and it stayed at my Mother's house... then, while I was living all over and my Mom moved a couple of times, it disappeared. I have often thought of that book and wish I still had it. Cheers, RickO
Here are a couple of tokens that were issued on the behalf of a Republican political club, the Wide-Awakes. They were a marching unit that held torchlight parades. Their trademark to march in a crisscross fashion from one side of the street to another, in the shape of a 19th century wooden fence rail. Their symbol was a large eyeball. Here is a small dime-sized token.
Here two Wide-Awakes tokens that show a couple members with their torches and their oil cloth coats which protected them from the hot oil in the lamps. This one is silver plated.
And this one is plain old copper.
BillJones, well done as usual! I particularly liked the oil clothed coats that lamp lighters wore to protect themselves from the hot oil. My interest in coins coincides with an interest in the history of the time when a coin or token was minted. Thank you for starting this discussion.
Here is an 1864 campaign token that include the phrase, “Honest old Abe.” According to the people at the time, this phrase was attached to Lincoln when he was a clerk in a general store in New Salem, Illinois. The story was he found that he had short changed a customer and walked several miles to set the accounts right.
Later, when Lincoln had a well established law practice, he took all kinds of cases, that ranged from civil to criminal matters. When he thought that his client was innocent, he went to great lengths to save him or her. When he thought that they were guilty, he was not as vigorous in the defense.
Lincoln believed in the need for righteous law, and he often went to great lengths to uphold it, but he was also willing to bend it now and then. One time Lincoln took on the case of woman who was in her late 60s. She had been indicted for murdering her husband of many years. It was well known in the community that the husband had beat her for most of their marriage. Finally she killed him.
At the trial Lincoln whispered to her that she must be thirsty. She didn’t think much of it, but when Lincoln become insistent, Lincoln called for a recess and took her to another room.
Lincoln said, “You know mam, I could get you some water, but I hear tell that the water tastes better in Tennessee.” She didn’t pick up on his meaning at first, but then Lincoln opened a door and she left. That was the end of trial, and that woman was never seen nor heard from again.