1860 Lincoln Camapign Medal - "Our Policy is Expressly the Policy of the Men Who Made the Union ..."

BillJones · August 25, 2017 11:44AM

I bought this piece in an auction in 2001, and thought that the price was kind of high. Since then I have only seen this variety offered a couple of other times, so I guess this one is on the rare side.

I don't quite understand the slogan. Slavery was mentioned a few times in the Constitution, and I don't think it called for limiting it a specific area at the time. Lincoln's policy for the 1860 election was "No new slave territory." Finding a medalet with that language don't used to be that hard, but I've heard from the one of the active dealers that he's have a lot of trouble getting 19th century political pieces (DeWitt varieties) is hard these days.

The dies for this piece were made by Boston die maker, Joseph Merrian, who also made the "Good for a Scent" token with dog on it that some collectors like so much.

DCW · August 25, 2017 2:51PM

Great medals, Bill. Some really interesting Lincoln pieces are popping up on the forum today.
Here is a another Merriam piece of Lincoln with the same theme. This one is the smaller variety (27mm.) Very rare as it is struck in silver. Ex John J. Ford, Jr