March 16, 2008: "Have a Cow"

Author:
J. Agre

Concept:
We’ve always been especially fond of this item based on its charming and most unusual Cow motif. And so it seemed rather obvious that our caption should be cow-centric.

We opted for silly and catchy, but actually the motif has significant meaning as described by coin dealer Bill Johnson as follows:

This token was issued during the Jackson administration and symbolized the Democratic Party-Jackson point of view. Jackson was an advocate of a small central government and an economy that was driven by agriculture. His political opponents, the Whigs, favored a larger central government that levied higher taxes and used those receipts from extensive public works, like roads, canals and even a national university.The Democrats continued to push the idea that agriculture was key to the nation’s commerce, ethics, morality and well-being. To paraphrase William Jennings Bryan in his 1896 “Cross of Gold” speech, ‘If our cities were destroyed our nation would survive, but if our farms were destroyed, grass would grow in the streets of our cities’."

But of course all that would not fit in an ad.

Captions that didn’t make the cut:
I really had one other idea in mind, but the token just wouldn’t let me do it: "Red Bull."

This would have been perfect if this token had more mint red on it, since this is in fact a bull (we think).