A RARE 19th Century Presidential Campaign Madalet
BillJones
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Since most of today has been spent on ethical questions, I thought it would be a good idea to get back to the collectors’ items themselves.
As I have mentioned in the past one of my strong areas of interest is 19th presidential campaign medalets. These pieces were worn, carried and sometimes spent as tokens during and after their respective elections. Some pieces were restruck in later years to satisfy the demands of 19th century collectors. Over the last couple of years these pieces have started to come into their own with more collectors taking a active interest in them. Here is one of the rare ones.
All James K. Polk medalets are very scarce to rare. In the 19th century it was said that the quality of a political collection was measure by the number of Polk and Cass (1848 Democrat) medalets collectors had because those pieces were the hardest to find. The reason was after 1840 campaign in William H. Harrison’s supporters issued record number of pieces, the Democrats reacted by saying that they would not insult the electorate with campaign trinkets because they were above such things. This language was written right into their party platform. BUT after the Democrats suffered a rare defeat in 1848, they abandoned that stance.
This piece is a really cool Polk piece because it sums up the major issues of the campaign. The obverse has a portrait of Polk and the legends, “Young Hickory” and “Press onward – enlarge the boundaries of freedom.” “Young Hickory” was the nickname that the Democrats gave to Polk to link him to Andrew Jackson who was know as “Old Hickory.” The “Press onward … referred to the Manifest Destiny, which was the concept that the United States was destined to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And to put things a bit more bluntly, it referred to Polk’s support for annexing Texas and going to war with Mexico to take their territory. And if you know your history, you know that is exactly what happened.
The reverse features Polk’s vice presidential running mate, George Dallas. Dallas’ lasting mark in history is that he was the man for whom Dallas, Texas was named. The legend reads, “Dallas & victory. Equal protection to all classes,” which was pretty standard stuff for the Democrats who counted to yeoman farmers and city workers for much of their support.
This is a very scarce token. I’ve only seen three or four offered in more that 10 years of collecting. The total population could be as little as 10 to 15 pieces. It’s holed at the top, which is a good thing because that shows that it was probably worn during the 1844 campaign. It’s listed in the classic reference, DeWitt as JP 1844-3.
As I have mentioned in the past one of my strong areas of interest is 19th presidential campaign medalets. These pieces were worn, carried and sometimes spent as tokens during and after their respective elections. Some pieces were restruck in later years to satisfy the demands of 19th century collectors. Over the last couple of years these pieces have started to come into their own with more collectors taking a active interest in them. Here is one of the rare ones.
All James K. Polk medalets are very scarce to rare. In the 19th century it was said that the quality of a political collection was measure by the number of Polk and Cass (1848 Democrat) medalets collectors had because those pieces were the hardest to find. The reason was after 1840 campaign in William H. Harrison’s supporters issued record number of pieces, the Democrats reacted by saying that they would not insult the electorate with campaign trinkets because they were above such things. This language was written right into their party platform. BUT after the Democrats suffered a rare defeat in 1848, they abandoned that stance.
This piece is a really cool Polk piece because it sums up the major issues of the campaign. The obverse has a portrait of Polk and the legends, “Young Hickory” and “Press onward – enlarge the boundaries of freedom.” “Young Hickory” was the nickname that the Democrats gave to Polk to link him to Andrew Jackson who was know as “Old Hickory.” The “Press onward … referred to the Manifest Destiny, which was the concept that the United States was destined to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And to put things a bit more bluntly, it referred to Polk’s support for annexing Texas and going to war with Mexico to take their territory. And if you know your history, you know that is exactly what happened.
The reverse features Polk’s vice presidential running mate, George Dallas. Dallas’ lasting mark in history is that he was the man for whom Dallas, Texas was named. The legend reads, “Dallas & victory. Equal protection to all classes,” which was pretty standard stuff for the Democrats who counted to yeoman farmers and city workers for much of their support.
This is a very scarce token. I’ve only seen three or four offered in more that 10 years of collecting. The total population could be as little as 10 to 15 pieces. It’s holed at the top, which is a good thing because that shows that it was probably worn during the 1844 campaign. It’s listed in the classic reference, DeWitt as JP 1844-3.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
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-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
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It’s holed at the top, which is a good thing
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Nice piece. As much as I like political history, I never colected these and I must admit here and now that I regret it.
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Michael
Did you see the full page story on Coinguy in this months' numismatist?
I have several of these presidential medals from my previous collecting life. I'll get them together and see what I have. I'm working on my coin photography and will put up so photos when I get that hobby understood well enough to not embarass myself.
I also have 1, 2, or 3 Indian Peace Medals which I think are really cool.
I also kept a whold book of Swiss shooting medals.
All of these medals are great looking and many are historic as well.
Thanks for bringing them up. I wasn't sure they were still interesting.
Great thread!
Cool tokens with nice history
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Sorry, but I posted this late yesterday, and thought it might interest the day crowd ...
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<< <i>Bill---If someone were interested in these, what should he expect to pay for them? >>
I've not been a great predictor as to how much one would need to pay for this when one comes up at auction. I've never seen one offered via "private treaty." Of late I’ve had a very bad habit of coming in second when I’ve bid in auctions, even when I did a “push bid” that I thought was a bit nutty. Currently Slater, which is tied to Heritage, has one in their auction (lot # 25650) in SILVER that they are estimating at $2.500 to $3,500 plus 19.5% (+5% more if you bid on eBay.). This is first one I’ve seen in silver. I’d be surprised if you could acquire this piece for less than $4,000.
As for the white metal, which is what I have, my guess is that it would cost you from $2,300 to $2,900. Please remember that this is kind of what the 1856 Flying Eagle cent is in the cent series. You’ll pay more for a Chain Cent (e.g. a really great John Quincy Adams or George Washington inauguration coat button), but a lot less for many other pieces in the series.
<< <i>Interesting. What is it made of? The color looks too light to be pure copper. >>
The piece is made of "white metal" which is a catchall label for 19th century medals that were made from something other than copper or silver. This piece feels a little more substantial that some white metal items, which are very much like aluminum. I suspect that this piece might have a little nickel in it since it does not have the mushy gray look of lead.
White metal was never intended to last for very long. It is quite prone to “tin pest,” and it is very soft, which makes it very subject to wear, scratches and damage. The up side for people at the time was that the medalets could be made cheaply, and the soft metal was easy on the dies. For these reasons these pieces are rarer than their low mintages would indicate. A great many white metal medalets have gone to political numismatic heaven.
There are few mintage reconrds for these items, but quite often production runs of less than 100 pieces were not unusual.
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<< <i>Very neat pieces. I try to pick them up when I can, but they're few and far between these days it seems... >>
You have to look for them in specialist exonumia auctions. There are also some exonumia dealers who get them from time to time. These guys are best to work with IMO. Conventional coin dealers don’t know what they are worth, and usually want WAY too much money for the common pieces they do have. On the other hand political dealers have no idea how to grade numismatic items, or at least they act like they don’t. All of this makes it a difficult market in which to buy.
PLUS even the most common pieces are very scarce by coin standards. The populations are not very large.
Here is the “economy model” of the Polk – Dallas campaign medalet. It’s a little bigger, but it’s a bit more common and not as interesting. This one is listed in DeWitt as JP 1844-2. I would say that it would sell in the $700 range. It’s been my experience that this the most common Polk medalet from the 1844 campaign.
One caution that I would make to anyone who becomes interested in these pieces is that you have to watch out for pieces that were made from dies produced AFTER the elections. Some of these are commemorative type pieces that have been made for some or all of the presidents. If it gives the dates that man held the office, you know that it’s not a campaign medal. Most of these “memorial” pieces are worth far less than the items that were actually issued during the campaigns or during the inauguration periods. Beyond that you need to buy the reference books and study auction catalogs.
This is not a really easy area to collect. You do need to do some studying and perhaps get some guidance from an experienced dealer.
Capped Bust Half Series
Capped Bust Half Dime Series