Hello to all! I recently stumbled upon a very interesting coin (at least to me it is!). I think it might be a presidential campaign token, and I'm having a heck of a time trying to find any information on the subject of hard times/private/campaign tokens...I've learned a good bit on these forums for other subjects in numismatic (errors, minting process, precious metals, etc.) so I was hoping someone here could help me find basic info on this particular subject? Thanks for reading and I hope to hear/read your answers soon!-mike.
I have collected the pieces you mentioned for 30 years, wrote a series of published articles about them. I might be able to help you, but can't do anything without pictures. President tokens were issued from 1824 onwards. Books include Hard Times Token by Russel Ralou and 19th century political tokens and badges but Edmond Sullivan.
Thanks for the info on yhe reading material! Sorry. I guess pictures might help. Here's a one of the obverse and reverse. Again, I'm not familiar with these particular coins, so I apologize if this isn't one...i just kinda stumbled upon it by chance and feel like it is...any info on it would be great.
Here is an example of the piece you have. It is a presidential campaign token from Zachary Taylor’s 1848 run for the White House. The Sullivan – DeWitt variety number is ZT 1848-17. It is a scarce piece as most Taylor tokens are, but it’s not extremely valuable because there are not a great many collectors who specialize in Taylor items. Taylor was a Whig. He ran against Democrat, Lewis Cass. Cass items are quite scarce and usually bring strong prices because Cass tokens have been regarded as rarities since the mid 19th century. Taylor was one of two heroes who emerged from the Mexican War. Winfield Scott was the other, who ran in 1852, also as a Whig. Taylor was one of only two Whig candidates who won one of the eight presidential elections between 1828 and 1856.
Here is a Lewis Cass token from the same 1848 campaign. This is the most common Lewis Cass variety, and it appears to have been made by the same die cutter who produced the Taylor piece you have. If you come from Michigan, Cass is probably a familiar name. He was the governor of the Michigan Territory before it became a state.
Thanks a bunch for all the info! I'm not as interested in the value of it, since I definitely plan on keeping it. I'm still pretty new to numismatics amd this one has got to be my first amazing find (at least amazing to me) that I accidentally stumbled across.
