The history behind this button is amazing and includes 2010 discovery of a section of Jackson's decapitated wooden head. Constitution was commissioned in 1797 and achieved glorious victories in the War of 1812. Likely she would have been scrapped in the 1830's but was made famous by Oliver Wendell Holmes in the poem "Old Ironsides." The story goes that President Jackson, with his own unique military background, decided to give the vessel a reprieve. A Jackson supporter who ran the Boston Navy Yard commissioned a figurehead of him. Whigs were appalled, for political reasons, and mariners were equally distressed that a former army general was to grace a navy vessel. There were handbills denigrating Jackson reading "For God's Sake Save The Ship From This Foul Disgrace." One Capt. Samuel W. Dewey was blamed or credited for beheading the figurehead the night of July 2, 1834. The following history of the head and figure take many twists and turns with the original mouth of the original head discovered in 2010 by a team from the PBS series History Detectives. The button we are offering is from 1897. It is 1.75" and has W&H backpaper. There is a .25" hairline crack to the lower left of Jackson's hand and just a trifle fade to the red rim. Button reads in full "Souvenir/Centennial Anniversary/Of The Battleship "Constitution" Boston. Oct. 1897/Andrew Jackson/1834/The Ship's Original Figurehead." Displays glossy and Fine. A rare limited issue and the first we've seen.