1889 Benjamin Harrison and Morton Second Century Inauguration Stud DeWitt BH 1888-80 Brass

A jugate inauguration stud for Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton, brass with enamel at about 20 mm, cataloged as DeWitt BH 1888-80. Paired busts of the incoming president and vice president sit within INAUGURATION, SECOND CENTURY, 1889. The piece was made for the ceremony of March 4, 1889, and it marks two things at once: the new Republican administration, and the opening of the second hundred years of the presidency, counted from Washington's first inauguration in 1789. Inauguration pieces are a narrower field than campaign pieces. They were made for one day and for the people who were there, so they were made in far smaller numbers than anything handed out during the run.