1884 Grover Cleveland Campaign Medal DeWitt GC 1884-16 Silvered Brass

An 1884 campaign medalet for Grover Cleveland, struck in brass and silvered, 25 mm, cataloged as DeWitt GC 1884-16. Silvered brass gave the look of a silver striking at the price of a base metal one, and it is the finish that has fared worst over time. The plating thins over the portrait and at the rims first, so a piece that still carries it complete is worth more than the catalog number alone would suggest. Cleveland's 1884 campaign made a virtue of his record of refusals: the mayor who would not sign a padded contract, the governor who vetoed freely. It was enough to bring reform Republicans across the line and to end twenty four years of unbroken Republican hold on the White House. Ex J. Doyle DeWitt. DeWitt built the reference collection of American political material, some seventy thousand pieces, while rising from claims investigator to president of the Travelers Insurance Company, and his 1959 catalog A Century of Campaign Buttons is the source of the numbering used here. Edmund B. Sullivan revised and enlarged it in 1981. Graded Mint State in hand. Offered raw, without certification.