Heritage auctions had its DeWitt sale of political items this week. The prices realized were "aggressive" to the least. Many items went for way more than they would have gone for in other venues. I was able to buy one piece I had wanted for years and purchased a second one at strong prices. Here is a Zachary Taylor from his 1848 campaign. This is the piece that was plated in the DeWitt book, which was published in 1959. The piece matches up with the picture in the book except that it has a lot more corrosion or "tin pest." When I was a young collector, collectors who were my father's age told me that tin pest could not be stopped. Once it started to grow on a piece it continued. I have found that if you store the piece under climate controlled conditions that it can be checked. If you return it to unstable conditions, it starts up again. The interesting aspects of this piece are the Liberty Seated design and the slogan, "Untrammelled with party / obligations." Zachary Taylor was a military general and one of the two heroes of the Mexican War. Winfield Scott was the other one. Taylor had never voted in a presidential election, and he may not have voted in the 1848 election when he was a candidate. This piece has been on my want list for 30 years. It might be the only survivor. But, given the tin pest issue, I was only willing to pay perhaps $800 for it. It went for $3,850. I can only hope that the new owner will know how to store it.
From what I've read, tin corrodes at low temperatures. That is consistent with my observation that the process can be checked by storing the item in a climate controlled environment. Here is a Henry Clay, 1844 campaign medalet that I have owned for 25 years, and it has not changed. The campaigns used this stuff because it was cheaper than copper or brass, softer, which was easier to strike and cut down on die wear. Since the medalets were no good to them after the election, they didn't care if these pieces fell apart. In the 1860s, collectors got interested in these pieces. Token makers took out the old dies and restruck these tokens sometimes in copper, brass or even silver, which less reactive. Here is an 1852 Winfield Scott token in white metal which has some pest on it (bubbles like small pox). And here is the same variety restruck in the 1860s on copper. General Scott was the Whig presidential candidate. The party was in the process of breaking up over the slavery issue. There were the "conscience Whigs" in the North who were abolitionists or having second thoughts about slavery. The southern branch of the party were the "cotton Whigs" who wanted slavery to continue. Many "conscience Whigs" came together and formed the Republican Party in 1854.
