I have collected 19th century presidential campaign tokens for many years. Over that time, most all of the pieces that I have collected look like this. This 1888 piece, which was issued for Grover Cleveland's reelection campaign, is just a token with hole in it. Obviously one could not have worn this piece on their shirt or jacket without a string or ribbon. But wait. A complete piece looked like this. The hanger at the top reflects light, which have drawn attention to the piece. I have not often seen pieces like this one, which why I bought it at a political items show last weekend. The token itself is quite common. Grover Cleveland lost the 1888 presidential election because he was unable to win his home state, New York. The politicians didn't like him because he had opposed their "business and usual" way of doing things, which was to dip into the public till. This was during the era Mark Twain called, "the gilded age." Cleveland had married his former ward, Frances Folsom, who was half his age. Instead of condemning the move, the public adored her. She became a political asset for the president and appeared on many campaign pieces. Here are a couple of them. As former president and Frances were leaving the Whitehouse in 1889, she promised the staff that they would be back in four years. Her prediction turned out to be true.
Nice specimens there! I have one of those 1888's can't find the pic right now, I don't have the Mrs. Cleveland token in the middle, that's rare or at least htf. I have the bottom token in my George Soley album, he used the Flying Dutchman as the reverse of a few different tokens of his, great design! https://www.cointalk.com/media/albums/george-soley.1832/
