I’ve been spending some time today re-arranging my wall of campaign ribbons to accommodate my recent acquisitions and alleviate some crowding..
Definitely not done, as my Harper’s Weekly centerfold of the Republican Primary candidates for 1860 is still on the floor, along with my other 1936 broadside from the SDGOP against Governors Berry and Bulow.
I was scanning eBay for items for my collection, just in case there was something that could fill that space off to the upper right of the photo – and I did find an ancient SD campaign piece that I hadn’t known to exist (more on that later) – but I also came across a more recent item I’d never seen before. A Scyller Borglum for US Senate Challenge coin:
Photo credit to the listing – (If you want to buy it, you can find it here on eBay).
I’m not clear as to whether this was an actual campaign piece from Scyller’s campaign, or a vendor piece that someone made to try to capitalize on the race in South Dakota at the time. But this might represent one of the only pieces of memorabilia in that contest, as I don’t recall any Dan Ahlers swag, either. Which is interesting to me, as Senator Mike Rounds is up again, and is once again running against an underdog candidate in the primary, and we’ll see what happens in the general. Which means we may not be seeing any memorabilia from any US Senate race this year.
The challenge coin is currently listed at $99 on eBay, and without knowing it’s provenance, I’m taking a pass on adding it to my collection.
I did find a campaign item from 1899 that I’ve never seen before. I had to pay more than I wanted to, but a little less for it than what the seller is asking for the Scyller piece. It’s pretty unique. I’ll cross my fingers and see if it gets here with our terrible mail service, and show it off then.
I did get a Borglum t-shirt and coffee mug. Not a collector though, just a fan and supporter.