Bryan Money Parodied Candidate’s Fight for Silver

Editor’s Note: For nearly 60 years, the feature-rich pages of Coins magazine, Numismatic News’ venerable sister publication, have tracked the history, fun and the growth of this great hobby, while also attracting new collectors to pursue what was once deemed the “hobby of kings.” Dusting off these time-aged issues, from the early 1960s and beyond, each installment of “Past Times with Coins,” written by its former longtime editor, explores what nuggets of interest they contain.

Every U.S. presidential campaign generates plenty of collectibles, including some wonderful exonumia. This was especially true of the 1896 campaign, which pitted free silver supporters against gold standard stalwarts. The nominees were William Jennings Bryan,