50 cent coin Presented by Andrew Jackson 1825
mortician1990
Posts: 25 ✭✭
Hello,
I had posted about this coin in the Q&A forum and was directed to post it here. Here is the original thread: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1088851/major-gen-andrew-jackson-50-cent-coin-medal/p1?new=1. I am trying to figure out what this coin presented to my third great-grandfather was for. Around the perimeter it reads "This is the Eagle of your Country, wear it near your heart & support its rights." The center reads "Presented by Major General Andrew Jackson to Henry V. Giesey March 20th 1825."
Valentine Giesey served during the war of 1812, and I had a copy of his payroll with rank of captain of company maybe Penn & Valentines? under the regiment Maryland Militia December 1814 - January 1815. Valentine was born in 1785 and had a son Henry Valentine Giesey in 1820. I find it interesting this coin dated 1825 was presented to Henry Valentine which would have been 5 years old at the time.
Thank you,
Erich
Comments
Not sure but it’s super cool
Thanks! I think so too. I'd really like to know the history/significance behind it. My uncle who has cancer just gave it to my father and he is sending it to me. Pretty cool it has stayed in the family for almost 200 years.
Very nice!
Do any of the tpg companies slab items like this? I would think ICG or ANACS would. I would be quick to get this item encapsulated for authentication purposes, and then continue to research to uncover the full story. My hunch is this could be very valuable.
First guess is that the names need verification if possible. It's a good bet that the coin was presented to the captain. Sure he wasn't Henry Sr. ? Wonderful family heirloom. Further research will be great fun for you.
You think I should send it somewhere to be slabbed? Someone recommended I put it in a quickslab in the original post. Thanks for letting me know about this.
Wow, history you can hold.
Upon reflection, given the inscription, if the general and the captain were close, I could see him giving it to the captain for his son. The late date of course supports that. Also, one would expect the captain's rank to be included if it were service related.
I've slabbed a number of coins that have sentimental value to my family. Great idea if they take it. I used NGC in these instances only because my coins presented better IMO.
I thought that too but wouldn't you think the payroll official document would say Henry? It may not have mattered on that document though.
That is a good point, if it were to the Captain you would think it would reflect considering Andrew Jackson's rank is listed.
Someone in the original post I made on this wondered if it were the date of Valentine's retirement. I'm not sure I can get that info without going to the national archives. Maybe I can request his service history? I suppose maybe he could have gifted that to his son when he retired.
So you would recommend sending this coin to NGC? I have no idea about any of these companies as I'm not a coin collector so I appreciate any recommendations.
If it were mine I would just buy a nice holder to protect it.
I would not send it to a grading company unless I was trying to sell it.
Jackson had lost the Presidency in 1824. Though he ran again and won in 1828, I doubt if this event in early 1825 had any political significance.
March 20th, 1825 was a Sunday. My wild a** guess is that the boy was Christened, or Baptized, after services that Sunday, and this pieces was engraved to mark the event. Not all baptisms occur shortly after birth. It could then have been engraved and presented after the actual event.
Is there any family tradition that maybe Jackson was asked to be the Godfather of the child? That might have merited having a coin engraved as a gift. If you know where the family was living then, you could check the local newspapers for a mention of such a connection.
I see no reason to have the piece slabbed by anybody. The condition is irrelevant. If I owned it I would want to touch it for the history it carries.
That is priceless.
Man I would love to own something like that. This is the type of coin money just cannot buy.
Fair enough, I'll order a quick slab then!
Don't disagree, and there is the time element, I just haven't found a holder I like although there are some nice wood boxes that this certainly deserves. I believe they make some presentation boxes that accommodate raw coins, perhaps within a nice holder. Check eBay, coins, holders for examples.
Interesting points, I would have never even thought of that. Henry was born in Somerset, PA so I can try to try and find some newspaper articles. Any recommendation on where to try and dig up old newspaper articles from 1825?
That makes sense, I'll just order a quick slab for it where it can be taken out easily.
What a fantastic piece and opportunity to research family history. This is what numismatics is all about!
This article appeared in the Republican Compiler from Gettysburg, PA, on 20 Oct 1824, and a very similar article appeared again in 1828. Valentine was apparently involved in these two elections as an Elector for Jackson. The tokens may have been given to each district's Elector for their support in the election.
I suspect, as suggested above, that Valentine might have been Henry Valentine Sr.? Couldn't find anything to support that though.
This coin deserves something. Lighthouse website sells these. The capsules are no doubt available in the right size and can be taken apart.
A hard plastic Air-Tite holder like this one should work and you can find one at your local coin shop for around a dollar.
If you live in a rural area and don't have a coin shop near by I can mail you this one free of charge.
I too don't think that this piece has any political significance, but Jackson and his supporters were probably mad as hell at this time. March 20, 1825 was a little more than a couple weeks after John Quincy Adams was sworn in as President on March 4. I'm not sure when he appointed Henry Clay as secretary of state, but it had be during this period.
Jackson finished first in the 1824 presidential election, but he did not get a majority in the Electoral College. Under the constitution, that was an "inconclusive result" and the presidential election went to the House of Representatives. There, Henry Clay, who had finished fourth in the election and was out of the running, was the Speaker of the House. The Jackson people claimed that Clay used his considerable influence as Speaker to get Adams elected. In return, Adams appointed Clay to be secretary of state which was viewed as a stepping stone to the presidency at the time. Previous presidents, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, had all been secretary of state.
Jackson and his supporters called this "the Corrupt Bargain." It was their rallying cry for the 1828 election which Jackson won.
Here a couple campaign tokens.
This one was from the 1824 campaign. This is somewhat common.
This one is from the 1828 campaign. All of the 1828 pieces are scarce to rare. This is supposed to be the most common variety.
And this was probably issued after Jackson won. This one is quite scarce.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing! I will have to look into this - I do find it odd he would be on payroll as Valentine if that was his middle name but obviously rules back then may be been looser.
Thanks for the offer! I will see if there is a local coin shop. I live in Kingston, TN not too far from Knoxville so there's probably a coin shop around somewhere.
Thanks for the information! I agree it is not likely politically related. I find it interesting that this coin is personalized but the campaign coins you have linked are not. So cool though.
Dang good catch!!!!! keep up the good work!
Edited to add: I am inclined to suspect that if Jackson had given such engraved pieces to every Elector that voted for him, they would be common enough that they would be known. I like the idea that Jackson had some personal connection to the Giesey Family, but of course I cannot prove it.
This is a very cool post with an amazing historical artifact. Have you, or has anyone else, attempted to determine the Overton number using the reverse of the coin? It might be possible to determine the year of the coin. We would ideally need straight on, in focus and well lit images of the reverse to attempt the identification.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Another interesting article...from The Village Messenger of Fayetteville, TN on 28 Jan 1824. Note the inscription on the coin is similar to the highlighted statement attributed to Jackson. Next time you see a holed pre-1824 half dollar ... hmmm.
I am not an Overton expert, but the times I have tried to attribute some half dollars from the 1820s, it has been a bear, even when you could see BOTH sides.
I have a William Henry Harrison political token that DeWitt attributed to the 1836 campaign. It was made by striking over an 1838 large cent! You can see the date as undertype. Yes, it's
It is possible that that variety of token was used used in the 1836 election, but this piece was struck later, perhaps for the 1840 campaign.
And yes this is the piece that Russel Rulau referred to in his Hard Times Token book.
My father shipped this coin to me and I should have possession of it early this week. I can have my wife take photos with her DSLR or I can try with my phone camera to get a good straight on.
Very interesting glimpse into the history of this tradition. I wonder if this sparked a theme and he had coins engraved for young men on certain occasions.
And one final article, directly related...from the Weekly Champion from Atchison, Kansas, dated 29 Jan 1876 , in the "From Sunday's Daily" column:
Oddly, the name of the recipient in the article is "John F. Geisey" instead of "Henry V. Geisey." Is there a companion medal out there presented to another member of the same family? Did Henry have a brother named John? I've seen other articles now that suggest Jackson made a practice of giving half dollars to children and making a similar "Eagle of your country" statement each time, so this may very well have been a gift to a child.
Dang good catch!!!!!> @tttwo said:
Wow! Another great catch!
The name "john" may just be a reporting error.
A question to the original poster: Is your family from the Atchison, Kansas area?
So cool, got my family dollar (1870cc) beat by 50+ years!
bob
So cool! Thanks for sharing! Pretty interesting as I have no records of a John F Geisey and we're from the Pittsburgh, PA area. Looks like Henry was born in Somerset PA and died in Brownsville, Fayette County, PA. His father Valentine was born in Lovettsville, Loudoun County VA and died in Brownsville, Fayette County, PA. No history of Living in Kansas but surely the family would be related somehow I would guess.
Could be, quite an error though and we have no history of being in Kansas that I know of. It seems unlikely that a coin of the same date and same last name (minus spelling difference) were given across the country from one another though.
Wow some great detective work!
Awesome and priceless👍
I live 5 minutes from His house
BHNC #248 … 130 and counting.
We NEEEEEED Pictures!!
bob
Working on a little more research (I'm a genealogist besides a coin collector). It looks like "Mrs. Dr. Johnson" was Drusilla (Bowman) Johnson, wife of Dr. George H. T. Johnson. She was born in Brownsville, PA in 1846, same place as Henry Giesey. Her parents were Capt. George W. Bowman and wife Harriett. I haven't found Harriett's maiden name but am assuming she was a daughter of the John F. Geisey/Giesey from the article. According to one family tree on Ancestry.com, Valentine had two sons, John Fletcher Giesey born in 1818 and Henry Valentine Giesey, born in 1820. And their mother, wife of Valentine, was Drusilla (Sugart) Giesey, presumably the namesake of her great-granddaughter.
So it looks like there really is a companion coin/medal out there somewhere. Dr. George Johnson and wife Drusilla had one son, Charles H. Johnson, who apparently never married, so after his death in 1935, who knows what became of it.
These Forums are amazing!
Thank you so much for all the information, it is very cool to see this story unravel. What source are you finding the newspaper articles?
I subscribe to Newspapers.com. Highly recommended.
I am seeing Harriett Bowman as born in 1817 (according to the 1850 and 1860 censuses.
So it's not possible that she is the daughter of John Fletcher Geisey born 1818.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/GCDD-DCD
I did find Valentine Giesey in the 1810, 1820 and 1830 Census, and gravestone 1835,
with son ages compatible in the 1820 and 1830 census with John born 1818 and Henry born 1820.
So I added Drusilla Sugart as his wife. She was about 10 years younger than Valentine.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/MTWT-CKC
Beautiful engraving
Lafayette Grading Set
You are so right, sorry. I looked at the tree on Ancestry again and see now what apparently happened. John F. Giesey died in 1837. He had a sister Harriett born in 1816 and it shows she died in Atchison, Kansas, so it apparently passed to her then to her daughter, Drusilla.
OK, that explains it. The 1820 and 1830 Censuses show several daughters of Valentine and Drusilla.
I found a Harriet Bowman and George W Bowman who are buried in Atchison Kansas,
but their ages are 14 and 11.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54351487/harriet-c-bowman
These are apparently children of Harriet and George Bowman.
Their mother Harriet might be buried there or someplace else.