ORIGINAL 1836 or 1840 MARTIN VAN BUREN CAMPAIGN TOKEN. REVERSE "WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE AND FOUND WANTING"

"Any man who would seek high office is precisely the last man you want for the job". The warnings and the example of George Washington set the stage for decades to follow on the issue of promotion of a particular political candidate. Candidates did not want themselves to be seen as seeking the presidency of their own choosing. Eventually however, as the generation passed and politics became more heated it became more okay for the parties to be seen as promoting their Candidates.

Part of Andrew Jackson's strategy was to issue the first presidential campaign tokens, and they came with three different slogans. I believe that the scarcest tokens carry the slogan, "The Nation's Pride.

In 1833 Andrew Jackson suspended specie (silver and gold) payments from the treasury to reign in inflation on the prices of federal lands being sold. This act caused hoarding of silver and gold coins during the great panic of 1833. Lacking currency for trading and no faith in paper bills private minting of (large) penny sized copper tokens became common and these were used in trade. There are many types of these tokens and they became a vehicle for political statements and even campaign tokens (Harrison 1840 Whig). They continued cirulating as currency until they were outlawed to be used as currency in the year 1863. By then, just about all these political and advertising coins were well worn and circulated.

Eventually, the hard luck times ended and the Democrats under the new leadership of Martin Van Buren credited the great experiment as a win. Jackson's stubbornness (the Donkey "jackass" first used as an insult Eventually became the party mascot.

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