Piqua Owney tag

1891

Owney received this token from someone promoting Ohio tin manufacturing. The token is in the shape of a tin plate, much like the ones presented to the country by William McKinley (then running for governor of Ohio) as proof that tin mining and production was possible in the United States. Rival newspapers alleged that Professor Sydney Norton of Ohio State University analyzed the tin plates and revealed that they consisted of 87 ½-percent iron, 3-percernt lead, and only 9-pecent tin. The issue was a minor bump in McKinley’s ultimately successful campaign to become Ohio’s governor. The token is the only politically-associated one that remains in the Owney tag collection.