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Nearly all political collectors begin as generalists. While perhaps limiting themselves to presidential buttons, they collect all dates, parties, candidates, sizes, and colors.
Over their collecting career, most continue to maintain their general collection, while perhaps refining their strategy for building a good generalist presidential collection. Many will also begin a second collection built around some specialty, such as a particular candidate or period.
In the old days, when generalists decided to refine their collection, they typically imposed certain rules by which they would collect. Most commonly, their decision ran something like this: I will collect one jugate button from each party and year. Thus the aim would be to have one Hayes-Wheeler jugate, one Bryan-Stevenson, and so on for all the elections. Other self-imposed rules might provide additional refinement: I will collect only 7/8 inch pins, for example, or only 1 1/4 inch pins.
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The great thing about of this kind of collecting is that you could make a beautiful display illustrating the entire history of presidential elections in this country. The obstacles, however, are many. How often to you get a chance, for example, to buy a Greeley-Brown jugate of 1872, or an 1844 ribbon or token picturing Polk and Dallas? Perhaps further refinement is necessary. Perhaps we will start with 1896. Or perhaps we declare that paper items are acceptable for our jugate collection.
Even if we confine collecting to 1896 through the present, we will still have some expensive items to obtain. Pinbacks for the Socialist Labor Party are quite expensive, for example, as are Debs-Stedman and Thurmond-Wright jugates. The Socialist jugate for Thomas-Maurer is believed to be unique, i.e. only one copy known. Well, perhaps we will eliminate third parties from our jugate collection.
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Even still, we run into the problem of the Cox-Roosevelt jugate pinbacks, which typically fetch $25,000 at auction. These Cox-Roosevelt jugate pinbacks are far from the rarest items in the hobby, but they are the rarest major-party jugate buttons. Since collectors need a Cox-Roosevelt to complete their jugate collection, competition for these items is keen.
Once again, the collector may complete the collection by revising the rules. If a cast metal watch fob is acceptable, then a Cox-Roosevelt jugate can be had for just over $100.
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Lately collectors have begun to wonder why there has been so much emphasis on jugates. Some have started collections of single-picture buttons, again aiming to get one from each candidate, typically in a matched size such as 7/8 inch or 1 1/4 inch. Such a collection is much more affordable, with only a couple of reasonable hurdles such as picture buttons for James Cox and John W. Davis.
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The collector on a more modest budget might build a collection with one word pin (pictureless button) from each candidate, again perhaps choosing one general size so the set will appear to be reasonably matched. In such a collection, only a couple of pins would cost as much as $40, and most could cost as little as $1 to $5.
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While few collectors ever give up their general collection, a great many do start a second collection built around some specialty. Collectors may decide to specialize in some particular category, such as third party, hopeful, or labor-issued presidentials. Some might zero in on a particular candidate, while others might select one particular election, such as the 1964 race.
Others begin to branch away from presidential buttons altogether. Some will collect "cause" buttons such as those opposing the Vietnam War, or for that matter, buttons supporting US efforts in Vietnam. Some will specialize in labor union buttons, perhaps trying to get one from every Teamsters local, or every possible city's "building trades" unions, or one United Auto Workers dues pin from every month and year.
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A good many collectors decide to specialize in collecting "local" buttons. Actually this term is a misnomer, since to anybody but a political collector local politics refers to city, town, and county races. To a political collector, however, local most often means statewide races such as those for governor or US Senator. Those who specialize in races for the US House of Representatives, or for mayor, have relatively little competition, and often get some great items at bargain prices.
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Just for fun this article concludes with two lists of specialties. The first is fairly mainstream, giving a representative sampling of the kinds of specialties many collectors focus on:
Champ Clark hopeful items
New York Locals
First Ladies
Mayors of California towns and cities
United Mine Workers pins and badges
Paper ballots from the 19th century
Political walking canes
The 1896 election
Inaugural Items
Prohibition Party
Civil Rights Movement
Alton B. Parker
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Again, this is only a tiny sampling of the kinds of specialties pursued by large numbers of collectors.
There are also some specialties put together by one collector, specialties that may in fact be pursued by no one else. A great example of this is the collection of Harvey Goldberg, editor of the APIC newsletter. While Harvey has a general collection, as well as a Kennedy family collection, he also specializes in "the mighty mites," pinbacks that measure 5/8 inch or smaller. As you might expect, these items make a terrific eye-catching display.
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To close this look at collecting interests, I have put together one more list. This a list pulled from random pages of the American Political Items Collectors roster of members. Yes, at least one person in the United States specializes in...
"Students for..." buttons
Political clothing buttons
Presidential Motorcade items
John Schmitz items (American Party, 1972)
1932 Bonus Army
Political clocks and watches
Charles Sumner
Gay and Lesbian politicians
Reform Mayors
"Republicans for..." the Democratic candidate
"Democrats for..." the Republican candidate
Spanish Language politicals
Anti-Nuke
1912 Hopefuls
Ceramic elephants
Canadian political items
Jugates with presidential candidate and local candidate
Political knives
Agriculture-related politicals
Presidential Tabs
Campaign biographies
Political thimbles
Taft "Billly Possum" items
Socks Clinton
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Hundreds upon hundreds of different specialties are already being pursued by collectors, and many hundred more are out there in the realm of possibility, waiting for the right collector to come along!
| © 1999 by Stephen Cresswell |