I just wandered into these two purchases today on the dock of the bay. The first is a sterling silver calendar medal issued by the New York World newspaper in 1892, when Joseph Pulitzer ran the show - he'd hired Nellie Bly as one of the first investigative journalists and she did a famous "Around the World in 90 days" journey in 72 days between 1889-1890 as a publicity stunt to build circulation. His competition with Hearst coined the phrase, "Yellow Journalism" and I like the history of this piece. The second is a Bashlow Restrike - from PCGS "P. Scott Rubin: The 1861 One Cent Confederate States of America Bashlow Restrike in Copper is a modern copy of the Original Confederate Cent created in 1861 by Philadelphia engraver Robert Lovett. The coin has a very odd appearance since it was made from dies copied from the originals that had been defaced in the 1870’s by John Haseltine. It looks like Haseltine used a chisel and hammer to deface much of the coin but still left it recognizable. The Bashlow Restrikes made from the copy dies have raised lines and bumps on the surfaces. What makes this coin interesting to collectors is that this is probably as close as most collectors will get to owning an Original Confederate One Cent coin since only approximately fifteen original coins were struck in copper-nickel. Mr. Haseltine was involved with using the original dies to create restrikes of the Confederate Cent in 1874. These Restrikes, which were made before the dies were defaced, were struck in three metals in limited numbers: 55 in Copper, 12 in Silver and 7 in Gold. I have found it interesting that these numbers add up to 74 which match 1874 the year in which they were struck. Today these 1st restrikes are quite rare, making the Bashlow Restrikes the only version of the Confederate Cent most collectors can afford." Now what have you all picked up recently, that you're enjoying? Happy Saturday all!
Thanks Fretboard, you are the token master! I also just picked up this neat (to me) "Bryan money" faux dime - which was an anti-Bryan campaign token issued for the 1896 Presidential campaign. A bit of history from the interwebs..."In 1896, William Jennings Bryan ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States. Bryan, a former Democratic congressman from Nebraska, gained his party's presidential nomination in July of that year after electrifying the Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech. He was defeated in the general election by the Republican candidate, former Ohio governor William McKinley."
