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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 4409180, member: 101855"][ATTACH=full]1107234[/ATTACH]       The recent discussion about the 1858 half dime with a counterstamp has inspired me to write about one of the few counterstamped coins that are in my collection. This 1837 large cent bears the counterstamp “Vote the Land Free.” [ATTACH=full]1107237[/ATTACH] A rare 1836 Martin Van Buren campaign piece that appealed some of his most important supporters, yeoman farmers.       Many years ago, Doyle DeWitt attributed these coins to Martin Van Buren’s 1848 third party run for president. Van Buren was elected president in 1836. Almost as soon as he took office, the nation was hit by the Panic of 1837, which was a very nasty economic depression that lasted for six years.       Van Buren caught the blame for the economic downturn and more importantly his lethargic response to it. A series was tokens, which collectors call Hard Times tokens, were issued during this period. The Whig Party used the depression along with some creative image building for their candidate, William Henry Harrison, to turn Van Buren out of office in 1840. [ATTACH=full]1107239[/ATTACH] As a group, the 1840 Martin Van Buren campaign tokens are much more common than the 1836 and 1848 pieces. This one is listed with the Hard Times Tokens as Low 56. I believe that all of the known pieces have been holed.       Van Buren was the front runner for the 1844 Democratic presidential nomination until he came out against the annexation of Texas as a state. Many people in The United States were in an expansive mood and rejected Van Buren’s position. That ended his candidacy.       Van Buren ran for president again in 1848. This time he was nominee of the Free Soil Party. His running mate was Charles Francis Adams who was the son of John Quincy Adams. Their two main goals were to end the spread of slavery to new states and territories and to pass a homestead act that would allow citizens to acquire government owned lands for free. [ATTACH=full]1107241[/ATTACH] All of the 1848 Van Buren tokens are rare. This is a shell token. It is hollow and is made by joining two thin, embossed pieces of brass.       Van Buren received 291,501 votes in the presidential election. He did not win any Electoral Votes, but he did affect the outcome of the election. He pulled enough votes away from the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass, to cost him the State of New York and with it the presidential election. Where the “Vote the Land Free” counterstamped issued by a different group for an alternate cause?       Several years ago, noted numismatic author, Q. David Bowers uncovered a different source for the “Vote the Land Free” counterstamp one cents and a few other coins. He traced the slogan to the National Reform Association which was formed by George Henry Evans. The group met in New York City on March 13, 1844. Its members included the Loco Focos, a radical splinter group within the Democratic Party, the National Trades Union (an early labor union group) and the Workingman’s Party. [ATTACH=full]1107243[/ATTACH] The Loco Foco movement was a group of radical Democrats who frequently opposed the Tammany Hall Democrats. The Whig Party tried to paint all Democrats as Loco Focos. They got their name from an incident at a political meeting. The Tammany Democrats turned off the gas lights end the meeting and silence the insurgents. The insurgents got out their Loco Foco brand matches, lit candles and continued the meeting. This piece, issued by the Whigs, tried to make the Loco Focos look ridiculous and ugly.       The group called for an investigation of the “depression of labor and the social degradation of labor.” More importantly the group laid out three objectives with respect to “the land question.” <ol> <li>Homestead legislation by the Federal Government to allow workers and others to acquire public lands free of charge. </li> <li>Legislation enacted by the various states to exempt land, such as farms, from seizure in debt collection. </li> <li>Land limitation (precise wording) to restrict ownership of large amounts of land by wealthy individuals so that land would be more easily available to the genal population. </li> </ol>      In 1845 the National Reform Association joined with the Fourierist movement (a utopian socialist group) to hold the first of series of annual National Industrial Congresses. It was during this these two times in 1844 and ’45 that the counterstamped large cents were issued. There are some large cents which are counterstamped with the phrase “Land Limitation,” but I have never seen one of those pieces.       Bowers supports his claim that these pieces were issued by the National Reform Association by noting the dates on the known examples. Bowers stated that he has never seen one of these counterstamps on any large cents dated later than 1844. It seems logical that if they had been made for the 1848 election, there would be pieces that dated after 1844. As of now that has been the case.       There is some like 80 to 90 of these counterstamped large cents known.[/QUOTE]

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