Heritage is in the process ofauctioning the legendary Merrill C.Berman political collection. Thisseems to be a good time to askwhy you collect in this category.

I guess I first became aware of the politicalitem hobby in 1981, when I ranNew England Rare Coin Auctions, beforeit merged with Steve Ivy's coincompany to become Heritage. NERCAhandled the auction sale of what was atthat time probably the best political collectionthat had ever come to market, theDon Warner collection. As a longtimedevotee of American history, I was captivatedby these campaign collectibles.I'd never seen anything like them! As objects,they were colorful and fun. Eachone seemed like a portal to the electoralbattles of generations past. The timingwasn't right for me to embark on a newhobby, but over the years I often thoughtwistfully of the fascinating pieces in theWarner collection.

What, in your view, has mostrecently brought attention to thiscategory?

In the early 1990s, the esteemed historianArthur Schlesinger Jr. was editinga two-volume series of essays by variousauthors dealing with each Americanpresidential election. His co-editor, Universityof Pennsylvania professor of historyFred Israel, was himself a leadingcollector of 19th century political campaignflags, and encouraged him to visita friend in New Jersey who had amassedone of the most comprehensive collectionsof campaign items from buttons tobanners dating back to George Washington.Schlesinger was reportedly "blownaway" by what he saw, and couldn't stopenthusing about how important these artifactsare in illustrating and understandingour political traditions. When theirbook, Running for President, was publishedby Simon & Schuster in 1994, itwas lavishly illustrated with items fromthe collection of that New Jersey hobbyist,David J. Frent. Those are wonderfulvolumes, and although long out of printcan still be found for sale on the Internet,and they provide a great introductionto political items in their historicalcontext.

So what's attractive about thiscategory?

The political item market exhibitssome intriguing qualities for a collector/investor like me. The historical importanceof these pieces assures that therewill always be demand for them. This isno passing fad like Beanie Babies! Thereis already a well-established collectorbase, anchored by the American PoliticalItems Collectors association, founded in1945. This organized hobby has created an orderlyand stable marketplace for political collectibles.On the whole, prices have risenslowly and relatively steadily. A Cox-Rooseveltjugate button worth $2,000 in the 1970s willfetch around $25,000 today. But it has been estimatedthat the total annual auction sales forpolitical items in a range of venues still totalless than $10 million - such a tiny market givenits obvious appeal.

To read the complete issue, see:
//www.intelligentcollector.com/mag/2015-2/offline/download.pdf