Political - General

Collecting political items is very popular in the United States. Since term limits ensure that elections of some sort are held every year, the campaigns that go with those elections at the national, state, and local levels ensure that a wide variety of political collectibles are available to collectors. Serious collectors of political memorabilia do not limit themselves to national elections, but collect state, local, and cause items as well.

In the United States, national political items primarily advertise candidates for president and vice president. Items with pictures of the candidates are always more desirable than items that only use print, and items that picture more than one candidate are more sought after than single-picture items. An item that pictures both the presidential and vice presidential candidate is called a jugate.

The most popular items acquired by political collectors are campaign buttons. The value of these buttons is dependent on the type of button and its rarity, rather than that popularity of the candidate that it represents. Other collectible political items include signs, posters, newspapers, bumper stickers, banners, jewelry, china, and novelty items.

Quick Facts

• Political collecting has only been popular since the '60s. In addition to collecting items from political campaigns, collectors acquire items representing causes, such as women's suffrage, the environment, war, and human rights
• The highest price ever paid for a campaign button was $150,000. The button was for the democratic candidates for president in 1924, John W. Davis and Charles W. Bryan, and included pictures of both candidates plus their Honest Government slogan
• Flasher campaign buttons were popular in the '60s. These buttons show two scenes, usually a picture and a slogan, but sometimes two pictures. The scene changes when the button is moved back and forth