Is It A Find?

Hello Dan, I found this Joseph Lane coin or token inside an old Bible. It has the date 1860 on the bottom and an image of Breckinridge on the rear. What is it? P.R Keene, NH Greetings P.R, What you have there is a rare 1860 Presidential election campaign token. It features ferrotypes (a positive photograph processed on a thin piece of iron): one of John Lane on the front and one of Joseph Breckinridge on the rear. Ferrotypes commonly also called tintypes were introduced in the 1850s and offered an inexpensive way to mass produce photographic images. Lane and Breckinridge ran as part of the National Democrats against Republican Abraham Lincoln and stood for a the expansion of slavery and Southern State rights. These tokens often had a hole at the top, like yours, to be hung from a pin or a pocketwatch chain. The photographic image being processed on iron made it quite vulnerable to oxidation and wear. Depending on the shape of the token's reverse side, it could be worth up to $700. Congratulations on a very nice find and it would be best to store it in a temperature-controlled, dry environment. Thank you for taking the time to write in with your interesting find.