It sounds like something out of a movie: Someone’s working in the office and stumbles upon an amazing artifact from history.

But, in the case of what employees at Osborne Coinage (asi/75260) “dug up” in their own vaults, it’s very real. And it’s very cool.

Recently, an Osborne Coinage employee found an original die used for commemorative coins for Abraham Lincoln’s original presidential campaign in 1860 – more than 160 years after the die was first created. It features a beardless Lincoln with “For President - Abraham Lincoln of Illinois,” and has a fracture line running across Lincoln’s face, leading collectors to call it the “Cracked Lincoln Die.”

Osborne Coinage (asi/75260) successfully struck with the original die, reviving a commemorative campaign product more than 160 years old.

Finding that artifact of American history is exciting enough, but the team at Osborne decided to actually put the dies into action, pressing 890 gold medals using the original die, each with the trademark crack across the face.

The story, according to Gibson Olpp, marketing manager for Osborne Coinage, is that the dies might have resurfaced back in the 1940s, and when they tried to use them they cracked, but she said no one can really verify that part of the tale.

What they can verify, though, is that it is the real die from Lincoln’s presidential campaign. And by creating new medals using the historic die, the team is creating a relic of the past – without any of the scary “Jurassic Park” variables.

The company’s numismatic salesperson – that is, someone interested in the history of currency – brought up the idea of collectibles with one of the brands that Osborne does business with, and they of course were interested. The worry, though, was that the crack could cause the die to break if they tried to re-press anything.

“We were afraid it would literally implode when we put it in a press because it hasn’t been struck for however many decades,” Olpp said.

The solution was to send the die to one of Osborne’s sister companies, who put a “collar” on the die, meaning a protective ring around it that puts pressure from all sides to keep it from breaking.

Osborne Coinage used a “collar” to protect the die during the striking process from falling apart.

“Then, in the meantime, we made a copy of it so that we could run it with no problem,” Olpp said.

But, after taking the necessary precautions, the moment of truth arrived, and everyone watched the original die in action and held their breath.

“With the actual Lincoln die, we put it in the pass and everyone stood around going, ‘Oh my God, please tell me this is going to work,’” she said.

It worked.

One of the more interesting tidbits is that, as they continued striking the pieces, the crack would grow just a little bit, so each piece isn’t exactly the same as the last, causing numismatic graders to look at them with specific criteria, and creating even more individual pieces for collectors.

“It was more of a selling feature that they were all kind of slightly different,” Olpp said. “It’s a piece of history, and you’re looking at a piece of history being struck again since the 1860s.”

Collectibles’ Role in Promo & Marketing

Olpp underscored the fact that, even though this item was more than 160 years old, it was far from a foreign concept. Collectibles like this are still valuable today, and items like this one are still used in political campaigns just as they were for Lincoln’s successful bid.

Each piece struck by Osborne Coinage was individually numbered.

Each promotional item that people receive ideally has a whole story attached to it. It tells the brand’s story, sentimental value and much more, all tacitly expressed through a branded product.

The Cracked Lincoln Die comes with all of the history in our country that we’ve experienced since his presidency – the rebirth of a country and everything that came as a result contained in a simple coin.

Really, if you think about that, it’s less of a feat of marketing and promotion. It’s kind of a magic trick.