1896 Bryan Money Free Silver One Dime Schornstein SCH-326 White Metal

An 1896 piece of Bryan money, cataloged as Schornstein 326. Not all of Bryan money is economics. A good deal of it is straight satire, carrying legends that ran against the silver platform rather than explaining it, and the pieces worked as jokes, keepsakes and arguments at once. The comparative pieces made the case in metal, showing how much silver a dollar would really hold at the market price; the satirical ones simply mocked the idea. 1896 was the last presidential election in which a major American party ran squarely on the metal in the coin. Bryan lost it to William McKinley, 271 electoral votes to 176, and the discovery of new gold supplies took the argument off the table within a few years. Fred Schornstein's reference is the standard numbering for the series. 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 campaign satire of this kind sat alongside the medalets in his cabinet. Graded Mint State in hand. Offered raw, without certification. This is the Free Silver One Dime variety, Zerbe 32. FREE SILVER, ONE DIME, 1896 in a wreath on one side, BRYAN MONEY on the other. A dime at 44 mm is the argument in one object: this is the size a ten cent piece would need to be. Circulated, with original surfaces.