The Gary Burhop Collection
Please enjoy this collection painstakingly gathered over many years by Gary Burhop. The collection includes many many rare badges and ribbons, many that have not been seen in many years - if ever. The collection is not only amazing in its depth and scope, but also in the quality and scarcity. Due to the size of the collection, we will be offering these collectibles over the next several months. Not all items will be listed in our weekly sunday You Snooze You Lose email. Many will be listed during the week, so be sure to check back regularly.
My introduction to politics beyond being given a tour of a polling place in 1960 where my mother was an election worker, was attending a Barry Goldwater rally in Rockford Illinois in 1964 as a high schooler. College was in Washington DC where I had a part-time job in the office of Senator Everett Dirksen, and several others following his death. In the summer of 1968 I was the youngest staff member of Citizens for Nixon, attended the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach and saw my first convention badge. But the bug did not bite. Coin collecting still held my interest.
Fast forward to 1980. The Hunt brother’s speculation in silver and the Garrett Collection Sale by Johns Hopkins University ignited a numismatic frenzy. Coin prices escalated daily. At a coin show in Lanham MD that year, I spotted two badges from the 1900 Republican National Convention in the case of David Schenkman (of token fame, and now banjos). The badge has an incredibly detailed, die struck medallion in high relief. I purchased the ‘Delegate’ badge for $25, the first of 700+.
My job as Assistant to the President of Malone & Hyde (a food wholesaler and specialty retailer) caused me to be in Washington DC fairly regularly. I got to know Joe Levine, historical medal dealer and political insider for Inaugural Committees, both R and D. He started holding presidential nominating convention badges for me and my accumulation grew. And, with it, my introduction to Rex Stark. I also started bidding in auctions: Tom Slater, Tom French and David Frent’s primarily. I joined APIC and attended several conventions, having a field day adding more badges.
The accumulation continued to grow but I found there was no reference or guide to collecting them. In the early 1990’s I made an attempt to see what records might be retained by both the DNC and RNC. The woman who handled convention badges for the RNC had retired and died, old records had been destroyed to make storage for more recent records. At the DNC, they explained they had moved offices so many times and had so much staff turnover they had no ‘archive.’ About the time I thought about pursuing Bastian Brothers, they were gone.
Then my job changed and free time went too – I became Vice President Government Affairs for the company that owned Harrah’s Casinos when the rapid expansion of gaming spread through the Midwest and ultimately beyond. By the end of the decade, I left Harrah’s to open my own business. Being an entrepreneur with a start-up leaves little time for ‘hobbies’ and my political collecting ebbed. After 20 years of inactivity, this collection formed in the 1980’s and 1990’s needs new caretakers.
Sincerely,
Gary Burhop
