The Lakeland, Florida Collectorama show is being held this weekend, which is unusual. Usually it is in the fall, but it was pushed up this time because there will construction at the Lakeland Convention Center during its regular time. I purchased this piece at the show. It an Abraham Lincoln medalet that was issued during the Civil War period. It was probably issued in 1860, but the date is uncertain because the mintage was small, and the reverse was also used for a Winfield Scott token that may have been issued in 1852. This Lincoln obverse was paired with four reverses, including this one. This piece was only issued in White Metal, and according DeWitt, it had a very small mintage. The "united we stand, divided we fall" is an appropriate Civil War era them. The ax which appears in the center is called a fasces. The symbol dates from Etruscan and Roman times. It stands for magistrate or state power and jurisdiction. The message is there is more power when the rods or sticks are bound together that when they are separate. The symbol appears on the reverse of the Mercury Dime and is on the wall in the United States House of Representatives. Unfortunately Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini also used as a symbol for his government and the word "fascist" is derived from it. Fortunnately, it is still a viable symbol unlike the swastika which has been totally corrupted by the Nazis. Before World War II, the swastika was a symbol for good luck. Here is the Winfield Scott token, which has the same reverse. This piece is listed with the 1852 campaign items, but it may have been issued in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War, Scott was at the head of the Union Army and was the nation's #1 surviving military hero. In some ways it is unfortunate that he was too old and fat to take command of the army. Had he been in charge, the war might have ended sooner. As it was he was pushed out with an assist from George McClellan. The reasons why I wrote "in some ways" was because slavery might have lasted longer had Scott been in command and ended the war sooner. Political events had to move before Abraham Lincoln was able to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in the fall of 1862. Had war ended earlier, the fundamental issue of slavery might have still gone unresolved.
Very Cool I got a 1860 Hershal Johnson & Stephen Douglas token. It has actual photographs. There is also a Lincoln & few other candidates with same type of token.
It probably looks something like this. These are called ferrotypes because the photos are printed on a thin piece of iron. They were the first political pieces to have actual photos of the candidates. The experts say that a few of these were made for the 1856 election, but I have only seen photos and never seen one in person. The Lincoln ferrotypes are actually the most common pieces of this sort. The Lincoln campaign had more money to spend in 1860 than any of his opponents. The Republicans were united; the Democrats were divided between two candidates. T he Lincoln pieces are still expensive because of high demand. A decent Lincoln ferrortype will run from $650 to $850. The rarer ones are more, sometimes much more. Here is one of the Lincoln pieces with his running mate, Hannibal Hamlin, on the reverse. Lincoln and Hamlin never met before the Republicans nominated Hamlin for vice president in 1860.
From what I have read, the misspelling was taken from an early Lincoln biography that had his name spelled that way in the title. I have looked for a copy of that book for 25 years and have yet to find one.
Very Cool! I have a couple of CWTs that feature Lincoln's 1864 campaign, one of which also shows his 1864 running mate, Andrew Johnson:
Awesome! I'm struck by the fact that the facial features of Abe didn't remind me of him, but for the rest of the piece.
"Abram is a masculine given name of Hebrew origin, meaning exalted father. In the Bible, it was originally the name of the three Biblical patriarchs, who later became known as Abraham."
John D. Lovett, who worked out of New York City, cut the dies for the obverse of this piece. He most likely had never seen Lincoln and was working from a photograph. That was how most of these 1860 dies were cut. The photo of Lincoln that is in the ferrotype I posted above was cropped from a Lincoln photo that Mathew Brady took of him when he spoke at the Cooper Union Hall in February 1860. Here is the original photo, a mirror image of the photo and a final cropping.
