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National Silver Convention Badge Presented by Otto Mears

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:75.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 1,000.00 USD
National Silver Convention Badge Presented by Otto Mears
SOLD
1,800.00USDto b****3+ buyer's premium (405.00)
This item SOLD at 2015 Apr 10 @ 13:17UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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National Silver Convention, St Louis, 1889. Colorado Delegate badge, purple ribbon backed. 1884 Morgan Dollar. The obverse carries specially designed “Colorado” with inlaid black enamel, on the reverse states “presented by Otto Mears”, which is die struck. This is a very expensively produced badge, and clearly was a fancy piece made in the spirit of the silver passes and spoons (see lot 1267). The Morgan dollar (XF) appears to have been lightly gold plated. The badge is not mentioned in the Mears silver pass/spoon book. This is the first we have offered.

The National Silver Convention was a first. It was composed of pro-silver coinage political forces and businessmen. Colorado was a leading force for the convention, which met in St Louis supported by a number of the western mining exchanges, especially the Colorado Mining Stock Exchange and the St. Louis Stock Exchange. The attendees were in full favor of bi-metallism, “full remonitization off silver”. “Let the friends of silver rally at this convention”, stated an article in the Silver Dollar, a pro-silver publication in 1889. At the time, domestic (Eastern) and foreign (British, etc.) interests had essentially demonitized silver. It was no longer bought and sold at the US Mint facilities, and mines and miners were subject to discounts offered by smelters, or a developing open world market, where anti-silver bankers had begun to hold prices down. Here in America, our silver production went way down, hence good rarities among American silver coinage of the period today (Viz: 1893-S dollar). Slowly, under extreme protest by Western mining states, the paper dollar came into play.

City:
State: Colorado,
Date: 1889

FHWAC#: 26445