A Very Rare Hard Times Token in Very High Grade

[BillJones]

Those of you who read my posts often might have noted that I seldom use the word “rare” when I describe the scarcity of a coin or token. I believe that the term should be used only for items that are truly rare – those items that are seldom seen at all and rarely offered for sale. I use the term “condition rarity” even less because I think that it has become an overused term that some dealers use to hype material that usually falls in to the down right common territory.

 

Here is an exception where I will use both terms.

 

 

This piece is listed Rulau’s book as HTT-76. Lyman Low gave it number 57. It is a presidential campaign piece from 1840. This piece is rated as an R-6 with an estimated population of 13 to 30 pieces. Dr. Sheldon in his scale described R-6 as “very rare.”

 

In addition to it rarity, this token almost always comes in awful condition. All of the pieces I’ve seen, which the exception of this one had no better than VG or maybe Fine sharpness and were always corroded. This is at least an AU-58 with virtually full Mint Luster.

 

As you might have guessed this coin came from a landmark collection and was sold at a major auction. This was John Ford’s “spare example” and it was once in the Boyd collection. The price was high, and gulped when I paid it, but the way I looked at it, if I passed on this one, I’d never see another like.

 

In 1840 Martin Van Buren tried and failed to be elected to a second presidential term. Van Buren was a political protégé of Andrew Jackson. An able politician in his own right, Van Buren built one of the first great political machines in New York State. After serving as one of Jackson’s most trusted advisors and then as vice president, Jackson picked Van Buren to succeed him.

 

Van Buren easily defeated three Whig opponents in 1836. The Whigs had hoped that they were split the presidential vote in the Electoral College by running regional presidential candidates. Their plan was to send the presidential election into the House of Representatives when they thought that they controlled a majority of the states. The strategy didn’t work, but along the way they did learn that there was a great deal of support for their Midwestern candidate, William Henry Harrison.

 

Almost as soon as Van Buren took the Oath of Office, the country and his administration was hit the Panic of 1837. That depression was extremely severe. As it dragged on for the entire four years of Van Buren’s presidency, the people came to blame him for his inaction to combat it. After a while people started to call Van Buren “Martin Van Ruin” and chant “Van, Van’s a used up man!”

 

In 1840 the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison for president. They pumped up his war record, and depicted him as a man of the people who enjoyed the simpler things in life, like living in a log cabin and drinking hard cider. In reality Harrison was a wealthy man who had been born into an aristocratic family. His father had signed the Declaration of Independence. He lived in mansion and actually did not care much for hard cider. His favorite drink was fine Madera wine. Nonetheless, the Whigs flooded the country with thousands of log cabin images including a large number of tokens that looked like this.

 

 

The Whigs won the 1840 presidential elections, but a swing of few thousand votes in a couple of states would have changed the result. Despite their win the Whigs were still a minority party.

 

The Whig triumph would be short-lived. On Inauguration Day, which was then held in early March, the weather was cold, windy and rainy. Despite that Harrison chose to deliver the longest Inauguration speech in history without a coat, hat or gloves. The president soon came down with a cold that developed into pneumonia. Thirty days after taking the Oath of Office, Harrison died making his the shortest presidency in history.

 

Vice president John Tyler became the first VP to take office after the death of a president. He did not see eye to eye with his adopted party on many important issues. As a result the Whigs were unable to enact their programs, most notably a recharter for the Bank of the United States. Four years later, the Whigs rejected Tyler and nominated their old standby, Henry Clay, who would lose a presidential election for the third time.

 

 

Such were the fortunes of the Whig Party until it was ripped to pieces in the mid 1850s by the issues that would shortly plunge the nation into the Civil War. Many former Whigs would join the newly formed Party. One of those former Whigs was Abraham Lincoln.

[HALA820]

This is what I like about coin collecting.

History and coins (tokens) make a sweet marriage.

 

Those are all sweet looking tokens.

 

Thanks for the post.

 

What metal is used on these tokens?

What is the size of these?

 

I bought the Spouse bronze medals and love the 90% copper in a coin the size of a half dollar.

 

I don't really have any set collecting direction (I am presently doing a 1955 birth year set in MS) but I may do tokens/medals.

 

Any good reference books on Tokens/medals?

 

Joe

[BillJones]

What metal is used on these tokens?

 

The Van Buren and Harrison pieces are brass. The Henry Clay piece is copper

 

What is the size of these?

 

Van Buren 26 mm

Harrison 24 mm

Clay 37 mm

 

Any good reference books on Tokens/medals?

 

The classic work is American Political Badges and Medalets 1789 - 1892 by Edmund B. Sullivan. Sullivan used the same numbering system as that introduced by J. Doyle DeWitt in his book that was published in 1959.

 

Some pieces are included in Standard Catalog of United States Tokens 1700 - 1900 by Fussell Rulau in the Hard Times section.

[TomB]

That's a terrific writeup, Bill, and I have never previously seen the Van Buren piece. Is that a beaver on the reverse of the Van Buren?

[BillJones]

That's a terrific writeup, Bill, and I have never previously seen the Van Buren piece. Is that a beaver on the reverse of the Van Buren?

 

There have been many debates about what the animal is that is guarding the safe on the reverse. Modern writers seem to think that it is a dog, but almost looks like a puny lion or some other feline to me. Back in the mid 1970s when I first got interested in Hard Times tokens some writers said that is was a monkey. What ever it is there is a key under its paw.

 

I think part of the confusion over the animal is based in part upon the wretched condition of most of the surviving pieces. I didn’t see one of these pieces until the mid 1980s, and all the ones I had seen were so bad that I would not even consider buying them. I was actually considering one with VG sharpness that had been badly cleaned (even like that they sell for over $1,000.) when the dealer said he thought he might still have a better one. (The question was, “Did we sell that one?” “I think so but let me look.”) Later when I came back to their case, there this on was! I guess it was fate that someone else didn’t buy it before I got back.

 

Some things are meant to be, and other things are not meant to be. I’ve learned that through the years. A week later I just missed out on a massive Grant medal that was a 19th century example of bronze of the gold piece that Congress awarded him for his leadership during the Civil War.

 

[lkenefic]

WOW!!!!

 

Bill... The only other place I've ever seen these is in a book!! Thanks for sharing!

 

Leo

[RUSS BEGA]

wow! very informative intresting post! great job! (thumbs up

[TJ'S Coins]

First class information (thumbs up with even better pictures of wonderful tokens It doesn't get much better than this

[HALA820]

 

 

Thanks Bill for the info.

 

Joe

[123cents]

Thanks Bill. Great tokens and a excellent write-up.

[MikeKing]

what a great piece of history and what beautiful tokens. Thanks for the informative post, Bill.

 

 

[IGWT]

Applauding Man Emoticon.

[rrantique]

[font:System] [/font] Great post Bill Thanks very informative and very nice tokens

[mark]

Bill:

 

What a truly fascinating post and stunning set of medals! Based on the last two medals, it's interesting that Clay was born only 2 months after Harrison.

 

What is the reason for the Bunker Hill reference on the back of the Clay medal?

 

Thanks very much in advance.

 

Mark

[rbrown4]

First class information (thumbs up with even better pictures of wonderful tokens It doesn't get much better than this

 

Bill, extremely interesting and educational.

 

Rey

[Shortgapbob-migration]

Very nice looking tokens and a great post!

 

I am just now getting interested in some of the early American Tokens....I love their history.

[BillJones]

Bill:

 

What a truly fascinating post and stunning set of medals! Based on the last two medals, it's interesting that Clay was born only 2 months after Harrison.

 

What is the reason for the Bunker Hill reference on the back of the Clay medal?

 

Thanks very much in advance.

 

Mark

 

Actually if you look more closely, you will see that Harrison was born in 1773 and Clay was born in 1777.

 

The Whig Party held rallies around the Bunker Hill Monument. New England was the strongest section of the country for the Whigs, and Massachusetts was one of their stronghold states. Massachusetts senator, Daniel Webster, was a prominent, well-known Whig although he never came close to winning a presidential election. Still he was a famous politician who had stories written about him, like “The Devil and Daniel Webster.”

 

It's in rough shape (It's really hard to find nice examples of these large medals in white metal), but here is a William Henry Harrison Medal that noted a "Harrison Jubilee" that was held on September 10, 1840. The (very interesting - mentioning the D-Party now gets the "spoon") sort of invented political rallies with barbeques and speeches. The Whigs learned to make it into an art form. Their big rallies played no small role in rallying the voters getting to the polls to vote for Harrison. In 1840 an astonishing 82% of the eligible voters cast ballots. Today we think we are doing well if over 50% of the voters show up.

 

[michael]

superlative

 

 

[physics-fan3.14]

The (very interesting - mentioning the D-Party now gets the "spoon") sort of invented political rallies with barbeques and speeches.

 

I noticed that - what will they censor next?

D emocrats,

R epublicans,

C ommunists, Communists

 

Haha, that's funny. No spoon for communists.

[relicsncoins]

Here is another Henry Clay button. I found this weith a metal detector. Not the greatest shape, but a fairly rare button.

 

JJ

 

 

 

[BillJones]

Your metal detector find is a shell button (hollow inside and not a medalet or token.) It is listed in DeWitt as HC 1844-46

[leeg]

Super token Bill!! Congrat's on that one and the history lesson!!!!!!!!!!