My third EAC purchase

[BillJones]

 

Dwaine wanted to see my third purchase at the EAC convention. Well, here it is. It is a restrike Winfield Scott political medalet. The original pieces were all in white metal, and from what I have seen are quite rare. This piece is a restrike (from the original dies) that was made circa 1860. Only 25 of these were struck in copper and two others in silver. As such this piece is actually rarer than the two gold pieces I posted earlier. But of course few collector care much about Winfield Scott tokens, so the price was a tiny fraction of the cost of the either gold piece.

 

Winfield Scott is one of those "might have beens." For the first half of the 19th century he almost literally kept the U.S. military alive. Between the War of 1812 and the Mexican War Congress appropriated almost zippo for the military, and Scott was one of a few ranking officers who kept the Army alive. During the Mexican War he and Zachary Taylor were the two most important generals.

 

After the war he ran from president in 1852 on the Whig Party ticket. His opponent was Franklin Pierce. During the campaign it could have been said that Scott won many a battle while Pierce drank many a bottle because old Frank did have a drinking problem. It did not matter. Despite the fact that Scott had far more ability and could cite far more accomplishments, Piece won the election because the Whig Party was dying over issue of slavery.

 

When the Civil War broke out, Winfield Scott was the highest ranking Union officer. Had he been 10 years younger and perhaps 50 pounds lighter, he could have taken field command and perhaps have shortened the war. As it was Scott was old, fat and ailing with a bad case of gout and soon had to retire. Scott laid out the ultimate strategy that would win the war. His so-called “anaconda plan” called for a blockade of the South that would strangle the Rebels by denying them trade and imports. And in the end the northern blockade of the southern ports played a big role in bring the South down.

 

[ctrl-migration]

Very interesting piece!

[EZ_E]

Great history, Bill. And, yeah, I wasn't too interested in this medal until I read the history of the man. Very interesting. That comb-over of his is quite interesting, as well.

[MikeKing]

a beautiful and interesting medal!

[123cents]

Very nice medal Bill.

[okbustchaser]

Nice piece, Bill. But check your collection. I suspect that your "Franklin Piece" medal actually says Franklin Pierce.

 

Edit to add: Although admittedly, you may have a Franklin Pierce Peace piece.

[WoodenJefferson]

Very interesting medalet Bill...like a pre-civil war "Bobble Head"

[TomB]

This is very cool and quite beautiful. How large is it?

[rbrown4]

My Gosh Bill, yet another fantastic piece. Congratulations.

 

Rey

[SkyMan]

Fun piece. (thumbs u

[BillJones]

This is very cool and quite beautiful. How large is it?

 

The piece is 41mm in diameter. It just fits into a standard PVC free 2X2 so that I can put it in my Eagle album with the most of the rest of my political collection. It has about double the thickness of a silver dollar, and it has a plain edge. Therefore this piece is too thick to fit in an Eagle silver dollar 2X2.

 

I have never seen an example of the white metal version of this piece that was issued during the 1852 presidential campaign. I would imagine that that piece is perhaps half as thick. This piece was a specialty item that was made to sell to 19th century collectors. That explains the very low mintage of 25 copper and 2 silver pieces. I have a few other medalets like this that have very low published mintages. If you want to collect something that is rare, but does not cost a barrel of money, these pieces might interest you. I'm mostly interested in the history, not the rarity, and if I have a choice I prefer to buy pieces issued during the political campaigns. But when that sort of item is not available, a medalet like this is OK.

 

[Dwaine]

That is so cool and thanks for the histroy behind it as well.

[coinsarefun]

That is very, very nice.

Great history and cool looking piece!!

 

 

Stefanie