I have a fairly large collection of 19th century political tokens. Therefore, finding a really interesting piece that I don’t have is unusual. Furthermore, I prefer raw tokens so certified pieces. So recently I was very pleased to find this piece in an on-line auction. The obverse is one of the early Lincoln tokens which was designed by John D. Lovett. He was a member of the Lovett family of token die makers who produced many pieces in the 19th century. Note that Lincoln is identified as “Abram Lincoln.” The incorrect name is said to have come from an early biography that was written about the candidate. I have never been able to locate a copy of this biography. Despite the incorrect name, this obverse was paired with four campaign pieces and four other reverses that issued after Lincoln’s assassination. I already had two other pieces with this obverse. I bought this because of the reverse which is identifies a group of Lincoln’s more ardent and important supporters, the Wide Awakes. Their symbol was the open eye that appears on the reverse of this piece. The Wide Awakes were a paramilitary group. They were founded in Hartford, Connecticut in the spring of 1860. From there the chapters of the group spread though out the North and the Western states. There was even a chapter in San Francisco. The group held loud and ruckus torchlight parades. Their uniforms consisted of waterproof capes that they wore to prevent the oil in their lamps from staining their clothing. The group was composed mostly of young men from their teens to their 30s. There were some older members, but it was decidedly a youth organization. Here is another token that shows the uniforms that the group wore. The Wide Awake reverse on this Lincoln piece was also paired with this obverse. This piece, with the open eye, is highly prized by token collectors. The piece in my collection has the other reverse. Some collectors look down on this piece, but I purchased this one at the time because it is less expensive. But to put that in perspective, this is still a $1,000 + piece which is, of course, a strong price for a token.
@johnmilton ..... You had a jaw dropping thread on the other site with your selection and associated history of your 1860 campaign token collection. Have you shared that here?
Very informative post! My hometown’s historical society has a Wide Awake banner featuring Lincoln’s portrait. It was in pretty poor shape and they were planning to get it restored/stabilized.
Dang @johnmilton you definitely have some really great historical pieces! I bought a Wide Awakes Token a couple of weeks ago, truly nowhere near as nice as yours! The really nice ones like yours are quite pricey, but understandably so!
