I recently bought one of the Heritage multitoken lots. There were six pieces in it, all designed an issued by the Key family of die sinkers from Philadelphia. Fortunately there was only one duplicate in the lot for me. Many 19th century political tokens are holed. This is a turn-off for many collectors, but the advanced collectors realize that these pieces were holed so that they could be worn, like the modern political button. Usually these pieces don't have the device that was used to wear them, but this is an exception. The medalet is DeWitt / Sullivan AL 1864-19. The medalet is listed in the book, but oddly enough, this piece is listed too as AL 1864-20. There is no photo of it in either Dewitt or Sullivan. I think that it must be fairly rare like this. Here is a an advertising token for the Key family of die sinkers. This piece is listed in DeWitt / Sullivan as AL 1864-22 B. It is also in Russell Rulau's token book. The Lovett family of die sinkers gets the most attention from moden token collectors, but the Key family made outstanding tokens too. One of the sons, William Key, worked at the U.S. mint for a considerable time in the 19th century. Unfortunately he didn't get to design any coins for circulation, but he did design some medals. Unfortunately again, they are all quite rare.
That is so awesome! Personally, I prefer tokens that have a life (story) behind them, rather than those which rarely saw the light of day. Glad this one survived.
