Here’s a beautiful one with Andrew Jackson on it. He is placed in a chest with a sword and a money bag, which are symbols of military and treasury. It’s on the political size as this shows the dangers of the Executive Branch to have power over both those things. Since no lid is on the chest it’s symbolic of a clown springing up like a jack-in-the-box does. The French saying is a devil in the box. This toy was very popular when the token was minted. “I take the responsibility” and “The constitution as I understand it” were spoken by Jackson. Jackson’s critics called him “jackass”. Combined with L.L.D. on the jackass, this refers to the honorary doctorate given him by Harvard. “Roman firmness” was a jibe to describe an obstinate, stubborn person. The “H” under the chest is the initial of the die cutter. His name was Edward Hulseman was from Attleboro, MA. He was employed to make buttons for the firm of Robinson’s, Jones & Co. from 1833-1836. Every thought from Jackson’s critics went into this token. If you think there is a lack of respect and civility in politics today, this token should remind us that such a thing never existed. This thread is not meant to be political in any way. I am just trying to explain what thoughts went into the design of this Hard Times Token. Please stay focused on the token. Thank you.
Good question. In his 8 years as President, Andrew Jackson had 5 vetos and 8 pocket vetos. He was the first President to use what had become known as a pocket veto. He used them rather than change legislation. He had a total of 12 vetos, more than the 5 Presidents total before him.
The BIG veto was the one for the recharter of the Bank of the United States. It was sort of the 19th century version of the modern Federal Reserve. The good thing about the bank was that it brought some stability to the paper money system, which was a mess. State chartered and sometimes banks without any charter opened and issued paper money that was, at best, accepted at a discount of its face value, and, at worst, was worthless. The flaw was the bank was a for-profit institution which was expected to earn a profit for its shareholder. The last president was Nickolas Biddle who had a major feud with Jackson. The 1832 presidential election was fought over the bank issue. Jackson was reelected easily. Here is the #1 pro-Jackson Hard Times token. It's listed as #1 in the variety numbers for the major references. This is tough one. I have seen $3,000 asking prices on really yucky examples. Samuel Elliot Morrison, in his much admired three volume History of the United States, claimed that the HTT in the OP was origin of the Democratic Party Donkey. I don’t know if that is true. It's been my experience that this is the most common HTT. And if immitation is the best form of flattery, this piece was a crude copy of the above token which is issued during the same era. The books say this variety is "common," but that has not been my experience, especially for one this nice. Not to get too policital, but Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump were similar. They were very outspoken in their views, and people either loved them or hated them. Both survived assassination attempts. In Jackson's case, the would-be assassin had two pistols. Both of them jammed. I've read that the odds of that were astronomical
