A token with a coin show AND a 19th century poltical connection

[BillJones]

Here are a couple of tokens that were made almost 80 years apart. The gold colored token, which is gilted, was issued during Abraham Lincoln's 1864 presidential campaign. This piece was undoubtedly made for collectors during the period because it shows evidence of a special effort to get a very sharp strike.

 

The white colored token was issued in 1939 during the Central States numismatic conference. The obverse was made from the same die that was used to make the political piece in 1864. The reverse reads, "Central States Numismatic Conference / The die on the obverse side was used in 1864 for making political tokens / April 22-23, 1939."

 

There are a few other Civil War token dies that still exist. This one might be only one that was used for a modern piece that was issued in connection with a numismatic convention. The original Lincoln token is worth several hundred dollars. The convention item is worth around $35.

 

[TomB]

That's pretty darn cool, Bill. Aside from the gilding, are they made of the same metal?

[goose3]

Great post as usual Bill!

 

when you going to write a book on tokens!

 

 

 

Interesting token too but Not quite as neat as your monitor primitive that I'd love to own.

 

got any other cool tokens?

[Hoot]

Sweet! It would be interesting if you could trace the chain of custody of the obverse die.

 

Hoot

[BillJones]

The 129/349 die combination is listed in Fuld in copper, bronze, nickel, white metal, silver, silver plate, gold plate and gilt. There are also other mules in which this Lincoln reverse is paired with other reverse dies. All of them are rated R-7 or higher, although I don't think they are really that rare. You have to beat the bushes for them, but they can be found if you look long and hard enough. If they were truly represented by 20 or fewer examples known, you would NEVER see them for sale. I collect only the Lincoln obverse varieties. I don't collect the mules.

 

Here is a companian piece to # 129, Fuld variety # 130. Most obvious difference is that this piece has dentiles around the border; # 129 has the rope design.

 

 

This piece was a real campaign item. It is made of white metal, which was the cheap stuff they used for "throw away" campaign. pieces. The hole is perfectly OK because the piece was made to be worn like a campaign button.

 

Despite the Fuld numbers, I believe that #130 was made before #129. There are fewer mules of #130, and it is harder to locate. You will note that there is a die crack that runs in the obverse from the rim, through the "6" in the date to the top of the piece. I think this die broke very early in its life, or it broke during processing. That break forced its early retirement, which made the production of die #129 necessary. To my knowledge the die for # 130 no longer exists.

 

These tokens were made by the F.C. Key & Sons company of Philadelphia. They were located at 329 Arch Street. The Keys were noted for high quality work, and one of the sons, William, was hired at the Philedelphia mint and worked along side Charles Barber and George Morgan.

 

As you can see one can learn a lot about these little tokens in addition to the fact that they were used to help get Lincoln re-elected. The Keys also made a piece for the McClellan campaign is well, which is similar to these Lincoln pieces. I'll post of picture of that as well when I get the time. At moment I need to meet with a customer.