1.25" reading "Teller/Silver Republican/16 To 1/By Uncle Sam Alone." We long assumed this was a hopeful button used at either the Republican or Democratic 1896 conventions. Teller, a "Free Silver" Colorado senator led the revolt against the Republican platform at the St. Louis convention in June 1896. He became a leader of the Silver Republican Party. In fact, a month later, Colorado delegates nominated him and voted for him on the first ballot at the Democratic convention in Chicago. While this button carries a rarely seen back paper of Boyce & Fabling Photo Novelties/Chicago, it has a brass collet with horizontal pin carrying incised text "Patented May 17, 1898." Teller never returned to the Republican Party so it seems this button may have been used to support a 1900 presidential hopeful effort at the Democratic convention, but Bryan was nominated on the first ballot. Teller's next senate campaign came in 1902 as a democrat. Scarce and NM displaying Mint. See rare 1896 hopeful stud for Blackburn #441.