A U.S. Grant 1868 Presidential Campaign Token – Rare but not worth very much

Here is an 1868 U.S. Grant presidential campaign token that was in the Eric P. Newman collection. This piece is not listed in DeWitt catalog of U.S. Grant campaign tokens, but there is no reason to believe that it is not an original piece. It is housed in an NGC holder. The bid I made for this piece was almost equal to the auction buyers' fee which has a minimum.

Unfortunately someone thought about putting a hole in it so that they could wear it on a strong or ribbon. This is not unusual. Many of these pieces are holed, and some advanced collectors appreciate that because it shows that the piece was probably used during the campaign.

The quote on the reverse refers to one of Grant's early victories where he captured Fort Donelson. He was asking the Confederates who were holding the fort to surrender to avoid more bloodshed.



Here is another Grant piece, which is listed the guide, quite common and much better known. It was first issued after Grant took the Confederate stronghold a Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1963. That victory give the Union control of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two.

This piece is also holed, and it is a bit nicer than most of these pieces usually are. It was issued in 1863 after Grant's victory and probably issued again in 1868 when he ran for president the first time.

 

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Nice pieces. For the life of me I'm trying to find the hole in the 1868 token and I'm almost embarrassed to ask, where is the hole?

 

There is no hole. It was an attempted hole at the top of the obverse. An attempted hole is worse than a real hole on these pieces. One of the crude ways that people tried to hole these pieces was to drive a nail into it.

Here is another example on an Andrew Johnson (The man who became president after Lincoln was assassinated.) piece.

 

Reading is fundamental. I need to improve my reading comprehension. Hence my embarrassment for asking. Thanks for clearing that up.