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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 15, April 8, 2001, Article 12 VOTE THE LAND FREE Dave Bowers has a question about a well-known counterstamp: "VOTE THE LAND FREE. This counterstamp is found on large copper cents (in particular) and a few other coins. I have been collecting these since I was a kid, have a few dozen, and collect them by date sequence. The latest-dated piece in my collection is 1844, then I have a quite a few of 1843, and many down to the mid-1830s, thinning out before then. The question is this: Conventional wisdom dating back many years, including in the Duffield study of counterstamps in The Numismatist 1919-1921 and in J. Doyle DeWitt's book on political tokens, as well as some of my own writing on counterstamps, attributes these to the Free Soil Party presidential election campaign entry of 1848. However, although I have been collecting Free Soil Party books, notices, etc., for a long time (since about 1955) I have never found this same wording used in any of their slogans. There are a very few scattered listings of cents stamped 1845- 1848, but I have never seen one. Recently, Russ Rulau, busy at work on a new edition of his book on HARD TIMES TOKENS (we all know that Russ works 48 hours every DAY), when queried on post-1844 coins with this stamp, stated that he had never seen one in the flesh or a picture of one. I suggested that sometimes well-worn coins are given assumptive dates. Statistical analysis would seem to suggest that these counterstamps were made early in 1844 (as I have seen just one with this date and, in fact, own it), using coins currently in circulation, most being dated from the preceding 10 years. There is such a "clump" of 1843 cents with this mark that this would seem to strengthen the idea. Question: Can anyone furnish a VOTE THE LAND FREE counterstamp on a coin dated after 1844 -- and send it to Russ Rulau or me (round trip postage and insurance I will pay)? If one is furnished, then the Free Soil Party rides again. If the post-1844 items are will-o-the-wisps, then a new theory is needed. In 1844 there were, indeed, some land disputes in politics--mainly involving Texas, separately the Northwest Territory, and still separately, the expansion of slavery (the slavery question is what the Free Soil Party of 1848 was all about, but with lots of overtones --- beyond the scope or interest of the present remarks)." [Editor's note: a web search turned up a handful of references to "Vote the Land Free", but nothing to assist Mr. Bowers' quest. This page, about the The Anti-Slavery Movement 1792-1863, pictures, among many other artifacts, a "VOTE THE LAND FREE" counterstamp on an 1825 cent: http://home.early.com/~amistad/images.htm ]

Wayne Homren, Editor

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