Great mail day today for me. Not only did I pick up a couple of pins from Bryce Healy (a 3in McGovern pin, and a George Cunningham for US Senate pin), I picked up a great example of a very rare pin I did some horse trading for:
I traded one of my two “one of a kind” Taft Day – Edgemont, SD Ribbons for it, and I think we’re both pretty happy.
It’s in the “top ten” of South Dakota/presidential pins for values realized and has gone for as much as $250, according to Anderson Auction, one of the mainstay sources of political collectibles. Although, many collectors peg it closer to $125-150.
This pin was issued in 1908 in every state at the time for the purpose of organizing those who had voted for the first time, as noted in this article from 1908 in Idaho:
The South Dakota versions of Presidential items can tend to be rare, because they just didn’t/don’t make as many for our sparsely populated states in comparison to a New York or Illinois. And especially in this era, political pins were still somewhat new at the early part of the 20th century, as opposed to ribbons which had been around for a while at the time.
A great addition to the collection.
Score!!
I see Taft won SD in 1908. But Teddy Roosevelt won in 1912
Congrats!
I believe Taft was the only President to be on the Supreme Court as well. (Chief Justice).
I bet you collection is awesome Pat. I wish you had a page where we could look through the collection.
It’s not bad, but Lee Schoenbeck might be more in the running for the best SD items.
Most of us dont even know what is out there.