77-23-B7
- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1977
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Button Button[edit]
Transcript[edit]You can sleep better tonight knowing the Federal Trade Commission has cracked down on bogus button brokers. I'll be right back. The other day a friend sent me a news item which has gone largely unnoticed among the debates over energy, malpractice insurance, MIRV'd missiles and the extinction of whales. It had to do with of all things political campaign buttons and commemorative coins and metals. It seems there's a thriving business in bogus or counterfeit campaign buttons. Collectors of the genuine articles have been upset about this cottage industry for years, still the best trained eyes among the collectors can usually spot a button manufactured after the campaign is over by comparing union bugs, shadings in color and crimpings of metal or plastic surfaces. Of course, as art forges have been proving for years even the most diligently trained collectors can now and then be taken in, and I suppose "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" and "Win with Wilkie" are just as much fair game to the artful counterfeiter as are Picasso, Van Gogh and Rembrandt. But the Federal Trade Commission in its infinite wisdom thought it could stop the counterfeiting with the stroke of a pen. So recently it ordered that henceforth any political campaign buttons, posters, stickers or ads had to be marked with the year of manufacture. Sort of like putting vintage dates on wine. Those making copies in subsequent years are thus forbidden to use the original date. In addition, copies of commemorative metals even paper ones must now be clearly stamped in capital letters with the word "COPY" as if the buyer's a little short on gray matter and can't tell that a printed reproduction is not actually an original metal coin. As the news article points out, quote, "Laws or no laws, forgery will continue to flourish as long as it is remunerative and collectors are gullible." Unquote. So much for the F.T.C.'s well-intentioned new regulations. No doubt they kept some bureaucrat busy for several hours doing drafts and redrafts. Unless you get the idea I want to encourage bogus campaign buttons I don't, but after all it's a hobby and surely the full enjoyment of it must include some risks and the ability to distinguish the real thing from a fake. One of the great pleasure stamp collectors have is the detective work involved in distinguishing between minute variations in different issues of the same stamp. I'm told that button collecting has similar elements but with the F.T.C. casting its eagle eye at counterfeiters who will, of course, ignore its strictures and what comes next, possibly an aggrieved button collector will seek first, Federal investigation, then prosecution of an alleged bogus button peddler, on and on, perhaps till finally we have in some Federal government building in Washington a full-scale Bureau of Button Fraud to keep an eye on such weighty matters. What then to do about the avid collector who specializes in, you guessed it, bogus campaign buttons. Now you'll have to ask the F.T.C. for an answer to that. No doubt they'll manage to keep a room full of bureaucrats busy for several days dreaming up an answer for you. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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