The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 28, July 11, 2004, Article 2

ANNIVERSARY OF BRYAN MONEY SPEECH

  On July 9, 1896, William Jennings Bryan's  "Cross of Gold"
  speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
  caused a sensation  with his denunciation of supporters of
  the gold standard. Bryan went on to win the party's nomination.
  From the George Mason University "History Matters"
  web pages:

  "The most famous speech in American political history was
  delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the
  Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The issue was
  whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver
  to gold of 16 to 1. (This inflationary measure would have
  increased the amount of money in circulation and aided
  cash-poor and debt-burdened farmers.)  After speeches on
  the subject by several U.S. Senators, Bryan rose to speak.
  The thirty-six-year-old former Congressman from Nebraska
  aspired to be the Democratic nominee for president, and he
  had been skillfully, but quietly, building support for himself
  among the delegates. His dramatic speaking style and rhetoric
  roused the crowd to a frenzy.  The response, wrote one reporter,
  "came like one great burst of artillery."  Men and women
  screamed and waved their hats and canes.  "Some," wrote
  another reporter, "like demented things, divested themselves of
  their coats and flung them high in the air." The next day the
  convention nominated Bryan for President on the fifth ballot."
  History Matters

  The political debate over Bryan's proposal led to the production
  of numismatic items now called "Bryan Money"   In the July
  1926 issue of The Numismatist Farran Zerbe published "Bryan
  Money Tokens of the Presidential Campaigns of 1896 and 1900
  Comparative and Satirical," the standard reference for Bryan
  Money for decades.  Fred Schornstein's 2001 work updated
  and replaced the Zerbe catalog.

  Is anyone aware of an online exhibit of Bryan Money?  I was
  unable to locate any. -Editor

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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