1884 Blaine & Logan Campaign Medal Restrike by Joe Levine?

Zoins

Is this political token by Gail and Joe Levine a restrike using the original die?

Is this die known to exist?

Gail & Joe Levine Presidential Coin & Antique Company Dealer Token - Ex. Steve Hayden (inv)

These photos are from Steve Hayden:

1884 Blaine & Logan Campaign Medal - 35mm - DeWitt-JGB-1884-3 - Ex. Brian Dobbins, Brian S. Holt (inv)

Provenance:

• Presidential Coin and Antique (sale) July 1981, lot 1074
• Brian Dobbins Collection of American Political Tokens
• Stack's Bowers (sale) Mar 21, 2018, lot 474
• Brian S. Holt (inv, sale) March 2021

Here's an original from Brian Holt.

ricko

That is one heck of a moustache on the dude on the right (as viewed).... Sorry, cannot help with your question. Cheers, RickO

Zoins

@ricko said:
That is one heck of a moustache on the dude on the right (as viewed).... Sorry, cannot help with your question. Cheers, RickO

Mustaches and beards of the 1800s is one of the things I love about collecting medals and tokens of the period

NumisOxide

Never seen that one. Neat.

MedalCollector

I’m not familiar with this Joe Levine piece, but my impression is that it is not a restrike of the original die, based on the lack of sharpness and depth, and the “smearing” of the beading in the boarder and the internal design.

Zoins

@GoldenEgg said:
I’m not familiar with this Joe Levine piece, but my impression is that it is not a restrike of the original die, based on the lack of sharpness and depth, and the “smearing” of the beading in the boarder and the internal design.

I own both of these now so I have time to investigate. It's interesting that the original medal above was sold by PCAC in 1981. There are a lot of similarities in my mind, ones that wouldn't necessarily be reproduced by someone recreating this. Also, if it wasn't a restrike, this would seem like a very strange piece for Joe to use for his store card. At the very least, I'm wondering it's a physical copy of some type.

I reached out to Joe via email last year on this and received no response and was sad to learn of us passing recently.

He had a huge impact on medals I collect so it would be great to learn more about this store card of his and Gail's.

BillJones

Here's another one if it is of any help.

Many dealers have had tokens like this made. Some of the impressions of the classic coins or tokens have been quite good. This could be a very good copy die that was made from a token. There are not many 19th century dies floating around in museums and collections.

Pioneer1

The reverse of this medal has the wreath that was common on many pieces made by William Warner & Bro. Co out of Philadelphia. Many so-called dollars have that reverse and are Warner pieces.

coinsarefun

@Pioneer1 said:
The reverse of this medal has the wreath that was common on many pieces made by William Warner & Bro. Co out of Philadelphia. Many so-called dollars have that obverse and are Warner pieces.

I didn’t know that but always wondered why quite a few were so similar, thanks!

coinsarefun

That’s a pretty cool one @Zoins . Can’t help much but I have 2 different ones using Lincoln’s die. This one and I can’t find the other. I think Ripstra owned/used the die

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Zoins

@coinsarefun said:
That’s a pretty cool one @Zoins . Can’t help much but I have 2 different ones using Lincoln’s die. This one and I can’t find the other. I think Ripstra owned/used the die

That is a popular one and one that would be great to have more information on as well. I wonder if it's known if Joseph Henry Ripstra owned the die or borrowed the die for this piece? Perhaps The Lincoln Group borrowed the die from Ripstra?

Zoins

@Pioneer1 said:
The reverse of this medal has the wreath that was common on many pieces made by William Warner & Bro. Co out of Philadelphia. Many so-called dollars have that obverse and are Warner pieces.

Great info! Nice to be able to attribute these to William Warner!