1874 St. Patricks Parade token

[brandm24]

A fellow collector and good friend of mine recently sent this beautiful token to me as a gift. He knows my interest in Irish tokens and counterstamps so thought I would be interested in it.

It's a token issued for the New York St. Patricks Day celebration in 1874. Not sure of it's purpose but it was likely sold as a souvenir, maybe to help cover the costs of putting on such a lavish affair.

One interesting thing I learned while researching the piece was that the New York celebration dates back to 1762. Apparently, it wasn't an actual parade but more of a festival then.

My pictures don't do justice to the the beauty of the piece. In hand it has a lovely sheen and olive brown patina that I couldn't recreate in the images.
Unfortunately, I don't know who struck the tokens as I couldn't find any references to it online. I also couldn't find it on Numista. If anyone knows anything about it please let me know.

The image attached is a sketch depicting the actual 1874 parade. Artist unknown.

Bruce   

[chrisild]

Apparently those medals were issued in different "colors", see here. What I find a little strange is the "gap" between the words GRAND and PARADE. Close to the two stars, the characters are almost squished, and at the bottom you have    lots    of    empty    space     .

Seems that in those years (early 1870s), the parades in NYC were in honor of the "Fenian exiles". Maybe related to this. Ah, what do I know - celebrating Saint Patrick's Day in Germany used to be limited to Irish pubs. That changed in the 1990s or so.

[brandm24]

Thanks for the great information, Christian. I didn't find any of this in my admittedly brief internet search.

I am somewhat familiar with Robert Lovett however. He was  a member of the Lovett family of distinguished diesinkers that included his father George and his brother John. The awkward positioning of the lettering is curious, but given his skill in the profession, might have been done for an unknown reason.

Bruce