Crying Tonight About The Coin I Lost Out On On The Bay Tonight

Everyone is right, cleaned heavily, to the max.

Not crying as hard as I was last night when I was lost an auction for a salty front seam fixed bale McCord M1 helmet with a type 2 hawley liner on ebay... The auction ended at only $79, thats about $200 under what it shoudlve sold for

Yes, looks harshly cleaned unfortunetly, but hey at least you got really lucky and learned something

That Andrew Jackson Hard Times Token was actually a pro Jackson piece, not a piece that would have been making fun of him. There are far more anti Jackson HTTs than positive ones.

In the early 19th century depicting an authority figure as an emperor was usually a complement. Jackson's critics did often refer to him as a king, however.

@billjones ... I see this Jackson piece as satirical and by no means supportive of Jackson. Consider that Jackson's campaign medalets all picture him in military uniform. This Hard Times token portrays him in a toga ... Is this not satirical, anti-Jackson? The reverse legend compliments Jackson on his "glorious victories" in war and in peace. Jackson was undeniably a war hero. In reality, his peacetime victories wrought financial havoc that invited hard times. His waging of an economic war, in effect, was anything but a glorious victory. Jackson and his supporters saw the President as a man of the people, champion of the common man and surely not an emperor.

My readings suggest that the use of "emperor" for a president is anything but a compliment. Indeed, it was generally believed and was written about in 1835 that the comparison of President Jackson to a Roman emperor was what inspired an assassination attempt.

As regards the "Unity" coppers, I seriously doubt that President Washington would have been flattered by being compared to an emperor, crowned with a wreath.

Russ Rulau listed these tokens in the Hard Times "satirical" section of his 4th and last edition token catalog. Rulau dated these HT-6's to 1834, two years following Jackson's election to a second term. Thus, I'm unable to see how this issue was intended to promote Jackson in a positive light. Also, the chubby, dowdy Caesar bears no resemblance to the tough, lean General Jackson who was ever so popular among his commoner constituents.

I did some checking and found this .... (Julius Caesar in Western Culture - Wyke)

In January 1835, Richard Lawrence unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Jackson in the rotunda of the Capitol. Whig (Jackson's opposition) rhetoric, comparing Jackson to Caesar was so heated that Francis P. Blair, editor of the Globe, suggested that Lawrence might have been influenced by the orators who, "had depicted the President as a Caesar who ought to have a Brutus." Even after he left office, his opponents continued to liken him to Caesar and his successors, the Roman emperors. (Jackson repudiated being likened to Caesar. He, himself, did not see this comparison as flattering.)

Honestly, if you cannot recognize a coin that has obviously been harshly cleaned and damaged, you should strongly reconsider bidding on multi-hundred dollar coins until you can educate yourself better or else you are just throwing your money down a rat hole, never to be seen again

Now I understand your position, Expoguy.

With all due respect you really need to study the history and policies of Andrew Jackson. Low #1 is very popular because it hits two of the major issues of the Jackson presidency. "The bank must perish" refers to Jackson's "bank war" during which he successfully fought to prevent The Bank of the United States from getting a renewal of its Federal Government charter. It was THE major issue for the 1832 presidential election.

"The union must and shall be preserved" refers to Jackson's political battles with South Carolina, and the other southern states over the tariff laws. The protective tariff benefited the northeast state industries by raising the price of imports. For the South it amounted to a rise in the cost of living. Southerners opposed it, and threatened to "nullify " any Federal law that was not in their interests. Jackson recognized this as a threat to union and was ready to send Federal troops into those states to enforce the laws.

Astute observes, like John Quincy Adams, saw that slavery was in the mix in this controversy. The southern state politicians saw that the tariff was only part of it. If the North could interfere with slavery that would impinge in their rights as they saw it. Some historians view Jackson's readiness to send in Federal troops to enforce Federal law as a precursor to the Civil War.

I have run because I have pick up the in-laws for Christmas this morning. I have that what I have written here will help you understand the history surrounding these tokens. I've written several articles about this, and I think you can still find them on the Early American Coppers web site. You can reach it with a Google search.