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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 2458065, member: 66&quot;]One of the major talking point by William J Bryan in the election of 1896 was the free silver question.&nbsp; Bryans platform call for the free coinage of silver at a 16 to 1 ratio with gold.&nbsp; The idea being to inflate the money supply with cheaper dollars making it easier for the working man to pay off his debts.&nbsp; On the other side were the advocates of a strong dollar based on the gold standard.&nbsp; There were a lot of different medals, tokens etc issued unofficially during the campaign ridiculing&nbsp; the 16 to 1 free silverites.&nbsp; These normally have some of the symbols seen on coinage and typically refer to the 16 to 1, and may have polital slogans on them, often satirical.&nbsp; In Gold We Trust, In God We Trust (For the other 47 cents), United Snakes Of America etc.&nbsp; In some cases they are oversized in order to represent how large a silver coin would have to be to be of equal value to a gold coin of the same value.</p><p><br /></p><p>These tokens/medals are called Bryan Money.&nbsp; There are literally dozens if not hundreds of different types.&nbsp; I know of two catalogs that have been published on the series, (neither one easy to find).</p><p><br /></p><p>A few examples of Bryan Money</p><p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/%22Bryan_Money,%22_1896-1900_(4359276765).jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Note the two pieces with &quot;cartwheels&quot; on them.&nbsp; That cartwheel is the same diameter as a Morgan dollar.&nbsp; Those were to indicate the size a silver dollar whould have to be to equal a gold dollar.</p><p><img src="http://exonumismatics.com/bryan/DAM.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/9892/10680132_1.jpg?v=8CDF0DDF5DDCB20" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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