The Bryan Dollars produced duing 1896, 1900 and 1910 are not Dollars, not tokens, but are medals hiding under the numismatic subset guise "so-called-dollars." They should never have been called Dollars and they certainly are not "Bryan" Dollars, because Bryan had nothing to do with their concept nor making. William Jennings Bryan ran for office of President of the United States of America in 1896 and in 1900. His platform was based on the belief that America should abandon its bimetal (gold and silver) currency standards and change it to just one metal, silver. On July 11, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Bryan won the nomination and Arthur Sewell was nominated as the Vice-presential candidate. Earlier (May 28) Joshua Levering of Pittsburg, Maryland received the Prohibition Party's nomination. On July Fourth, Charles H. Hatchett becomes the Socialist Party's candidate. July 22nd, at the National Silver Party's Convention in Saint Louis, the members vote to support the Democrat's nominees, Bryan and Sewall. July 25 at the People's Party convention in Saint Louis, the Fusionists, who controlled party policy, forced the nomination of Bryan for President, but the solidarity of the mid-roaders, within the party, influenced the party leaders to acquiescence to their demands and nominate Thomas E. Watson tyo run for Vice-President. August 8 William McKinley, a Buckeye (Ohioan), accepted the Republican nomination at an address in Canton, Ohio. September 2 at the National (Gold) Democratic Convention -- made-up of Democrats against Bryan's silver platform -- choose John Palmer as its Presidential candidate (after current President Grover Cleveland declines the nomination). Here is where the truth emerges in the annals of numismatic history. The so-called-Dollars should be referred as Anti-Bryan Dollars because they were created by silver smiths to demean and ridicule Bryan's "free silver" ideology. By-the-way Bryan Dollars were composed of other metals other than silver. The silver smiths and private coiners of the so-called-Dollars, not only minted the coins for the Republican Party, but produced a few varieties bearing the names of businesses who were anti-Bryan in 1896 and 1900. When you look over the photos (courtesy of So-Called Dollars), you will discover that restrikes were made in both those years, but all the 1910 dated pieces were all restrikes. Notice that all restrikes bear the curved text of Tiffany & Co. in larger than 71/2mm letters and have matte or frosted surfaces (originals have smooth surfaces): http://www.so-calleddollars.com/Events/Bryan_Dollars.html I hope you enjoyed seeing all the photos as much as I did... Clinker
A bIg HELLO Duke and a great bIg T H A N K S for reading and tendering your positive response... Clinker
Hello Clinker, First, I want to say how much I enjoy all of the trivia that you post on this board. I know I don't say it nearly often enough, but I find them very enjoyable and informative reads. With this thread though, there are a few pieces of information that conflict with what I have read and is contained in my reference material on this subject. I am a collector of this material (there is an album on my page that shows a small portion of my Bryan Money collection), so I read this post with great interest. While H & K refers to them as Bryan Dollars, just about everyone else refers to them as "Bryan Money". The words "Bryan Money" can even be found on some varieties in this series. These pieces bear dates of 1896, 1897, 1900 & 1908. I did not see any bearing the date of 1910, although restrikes were made at that time. Bryan's political platform was backing the bimetallic system, not a position of trying to abandon it. The bimetallic issue had its beginnings back in 1873 when a bill slipped through Congress which did not state the demonetization of silver, but rather appeared to be a direction of minting measures and procedures. "That the gold coins of the United States shall be a one dollar piece, which, at the weight of twenty-five and eight tenth grains shall be the unit of value. That the silver coins of the United States shall be a trade dollar, a half dollar or fifty cent piece, a quarter dollar or twenty five cent piece, a dime or ten cent piece; and said coins shall be a legal tender at their nominal value for any amount not exceeding five dollars in any one payment." "That no coins either of gold or silver, or minor coinage shall hereafter be issued from the mint, other than those of the denominations, standards and weights herein set forth." (17 statutes, 424) Did you catch that the standard silver dollar was omitted from the list? I think the legislators at the time did not. To some, that omission became known as The Crime of 1873, and was one of the earliest precursors to the financial issues of 1896 presidential election. A five year long depression began in 1873, during which time a return to bimetallism was urged by the silver supporters. The Bland-Allison Act (passed over Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes veto) called for the expansion of silver coinage and was passed on Feb. 28, 1878. During this time, greenbacks were required to have gold backing, to which the public could demand. Hayes was able to accumulate enough gold in the Treasury however, to put a stop to the public's demand for exchanging greenbacks for gold, which helped to restore public confidence and improve the economy. The industrial revolution brought a return to hard times in 1884, when hundreds of thousands of workers were replaced by machines. On average, an industrial machine could replace 20 workers. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 called for Treasury Notes to be issued, but did not restore the silver dollar to a coequal bimetallic standard. Without going into all of the details, deflation resulted, and worsened to become the Panic of 1893. Most Bryan Money was made to be distributed (sold) at political rallies. The many producers and variance in metal supplies led to a wide variety of sizes, styles, and metals for this pieces, which were made by both striking and casting methods. They were used as a method of communication, as is evidenced by many of the slogans on them. Remember, at that time, there were no televisions, radios or automobiles, and even newspapers were not quickly distributed over wide areas. These were like mini billboards trying to persuade political opinion. While many of the off metal pieces of Bryan Money are in the 88-90mm diameter range, some are as large as 104mm, 6.5mm thick. and could weigh up to 520G. A pocket full of those would certainly make one lean to the side. Materials used in production included type metal, babbitt, copper, white copper, lead, silver, nickel, bronze, white bronze, aluminum, iron, tin plate, coin silver, low grade silver, zinc, white metal, silvered cardboard, brass, and sheet brass backed with sheet tin (this style was made as large as 151mm in diameter). Some of those metals were changed in appearance by being plated with silver, nickel, or chrome, painted with an aluminum paint, or gilded. I won't get into it now as this is already a lengthy post, but many believe that the story "The Wizard of Oz" written by L. Frank Baum, and first published on August 1, 1900, was an allegory of the silver and gold issues of the 1890s. Baum's background would have lent itself to such a monetary allegory very easily. It is believed that the characters in the story represented people in real life. For instance, it is believed that William Jennings Bryan was represented by the Cowardly Lion, as it was feared that he would put other issues ahead of the silver issue in the 1900 election. The scarecrow represented the American farmer, the Tin man was the American factory worker, and so on. Oz was for an ounce of gold. Think about the many things were the color of money - gold or green (the slippers were green in the book). I hope you find my additional information to be of interest.
Bryan Money is probably a better name since they do come in denominations other than dollars. Yep but it doesn't mean much. Doesn't mean silver has been demonitized, just means we aren't going to make silver dollars any more. But what it did do was limit the legal tender status of the silver coins making them subsidiary to gold and in effect put the US on an undeclared gold standard. Gold certificates were backed by gold, silver certificates were backed by silver, greenbacks were legal tender notes that had their authority by decree of the government and were either not back or fractionally backed and the backing could not be demanded by the public. By 1878 the greenbacks were at par with gold and above par with respect to silver. Why in brief. The amount of silver to be purchased monthly was greatly increased, and more important the silver was to be paid for with a new type of Treasury note known as a coin note. This note was redeemable in either gold or silver at the option of the bearer. This let the silver interests deposit 80 cents worth of silver, get paid a dollar in paper for it, immediately exchange the paper for a dollar face value in gold that had a bullion market value of a dollar ten or more. The result was a flood of silver coming into the Treasury and a flood of gold going out. So much gold left the Treasury that by 1893 there was less than the legally required reserve of 100 million dollars on hand and the US Government came to the brink of having to default on its financial obligations that HAD to be paid in gold. This created a financial crisis, uncertainty, runs on the banks, the collapse of many if not most banks and the Panic of 1893 that lasted for at least 3 years. (Of the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Treasury notes of 1890 that were issued, by 1893 there were only $2 million outstanding. This is the series that the paper money collectors call the Watermelon ($100) and Grand Watermelon ($1000) notes which today bring in the hundreds of thousands of dollars due to their rarity.) While it seems to fit very well, there is no actual proof that this was intended and the Wizard of OZ/ gold & silver debates connection only dates back to the early 1960's. Actually the slippers were silver in the book. The magic SILVER slippers.
To CWtokenman and conder101: Thanks to both of you for adding your knowledge to this subject so I and all Coin Talk members can benefit by reading this trivial post. Clinker
unfortunately, my mom just passed these onto me for xmas - after she cleaned them!!! Don't know if that affects the value as much as regular coins, but I kinda gave her a hard time about it :bigeyes:
Hi kaeggar... Cleaning anything numismatic lowers the value, because it lowers the grade... Your mother gave you a couple nice pieces of American history. Thanks for sharing thw photo... Clinker
