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Political Campaign & CWT Collectors ever see one of these?
Broadstruck
Posts: 30,497 ✭✭✭✭✭
I don't recall having ever seen this battle listed reverse on this and prior to digging through a hundred auction catalogs this winter was wondering if anyone else has seen another? This George B. McClellan 28mm diameter copper token struck on a thick planchet is unlisted by both Dewitt and Sullivan in his revision. I don't recall an example in the John Ford sale which I spent time taking notes on at SB's lot viewing. The reverse shows some die sinker spacing errors on the "Y" in Yorktown and the "N" on Malvern. Along with a former letter "A" under the final "Y" in Yorktown and completely misspelling the word Seven in the battle of Fair Oaks Seven Pines leaving out a letter "E".
To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!
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very neat item
BHNC #203
Yes, I have one. It is unlisted in DeWitt. I bought it from Steve Tannenbaum year ago.
BillJones,
Thanks and I like your example.
Have you seen any others?
Nice one.... and obviously a rare one.... another for my list to check in the antique shops....never know what might show up there... Cheers, RickO
I have an antique shop near me, the proprietors are friends, and I know they have thousands of political items, many rare, that no one ever sees. Their children are also dealers, so I guess they will know what to do with stuff [my friends are at least in their 80's], but it does make me go Hmmm!
I wish I could have a look at that hoard although the owners might be disappointed because I have a lot of pieces. I collect pieces from all of the candidates, but I tend to buy pieces that cover the issues of the day and shy away from those pieces that only say "so and so is running for president." Some collector specialize on one or two candidates or races.
@BillJones and/or @Broadstruck -- I'm curious about the small circle at 12 o'clock on the reverse of both pictured examples. It looks like it should say "drill hole here for suspension." I don't recall seeing that on other political pieces. Is it common?
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
Yes, I think that circle is a spot for "drill hole here for suspension." It has been my experience that this not a common feature on most political pieces. The only other pieces that I recall, off the top of my head, that have this feature are the "Wealth of the South" presidential tokens that were issued for the 1860 election and restruck after that. Here is an example.
@jerseycat101
What do you disagree with in Ricko's post? care to explain?
The drill hole locator is seen more on political tokens of the mid 1870-92 issues then on something struck in 1860.
@BillJones and @Broadstruck -- Got it. Thanks guys!
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
Guess they didn't have room to fit Gaines' Mill on there, one of the hardest fought of the 7 Days.
There's quite a few battles missing... Now if the die sinker in 1864 had only done a Google search
Just ran across this again and thought it was interesting.
Do we know who the die sinker is? If not, perhaps matching McClellan's bust to other tokens could be a way?
I am fairly certain that Charles McSorley had one in his case back at one of the Cherry Hill token shows around 1990 give or take. I remember it because someone at the table started rattling off all the battles of the Peninsular Campaign, someone else disagreed about the order of the battles then Atlanta Civil War dealer Everitt Bowles at the next table commented that "the battles don't matter that much because y'all lost that campaign too".
One of these two pieces could be the ex-McSorley piece although Steve Tanennbaum often noted pedigrees and sources on his holders and Bill Jones would have noted that as well. I am uncertain of the die sinker & haven't studied the possibilities; the Patriotic #138 & 138A dies by Bridgens are similar with the coat, buttons & epaulet but the collar and facial features differ - more research needed.
The die work screams "Bridgens" to me. Below is one of his storecards for comparison:
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
I agree Bridgens looks like a candidate die sinker here, similar to Fuld 138. Fuld 138A is a candidate too. Ken Bauer indicates Fuld 138A was done by Lovett on the page below, but it would make sense to be attributed to Bridgens as well due to the similarities. Is 138A more correctly attributed to Bridgens than Lovett?
I also think the DeWitt-GMcC-1864-93 dog tag has a similar bust.
I've posted photos of both Fuld 138A and DeWitt-GMcC-1864-93 from Ken's site for comparison below, images originally from Steve Hayden and eBay.
McClellan Patriotic - Fuld 138A
The other token that has a similar McClellan bust is the following Civil War dog tag:
McClellan Dog Tag - DeWitt-GMcC-1864-93
While looking for something else I found this note in the die sinker chapter of the newest 6th edition of the Patriotic catalog -- "Research by David Gladfelter reveals that (Rudoph P.) Laubenheimer should be credited with dies 132, 132A and 149, and probably 138A and 150 as well." Mention is made that some of the RL signed dies were incorrectly attributed to Robert Lovett, Jr.
Great info. It's interesting that 138 and 138A look so similar if they are from different die sinkers. I wonder if they were both working off of the same picture or something?
I just looked him up and found the following 2015 announcement. Sounds like it was quite a sale. I wonder if anyone here participated?
The sale catalog is available on the NNP here: