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Mayor Fri Feb 11 2011
How to Commemorate the 2011 Election
Modern mayoral elections in Chicago have usually assumed the aura of a coronation. But these are rare times in our broad-shouldered megalopolis on the lake. Four high-profile and viable candidates -- Rahm Emanuel, Gery Chico, Carol Moseley-Braun and Miguel del Valle -- are out in the campaigning trenches every day. Extend the media lens out a bit and two more candidates, Patricia Van Pelt Watkins and William "Dock" Walls, round out the ballot.
With a former US Senator, the current President's past chief of staff, a high-profile long-time city insider mixing it up for the Fifth Floor, a winter proving to be shovel-ready, and the exiting of perhaps the most iconic big city mayor since, um, another iconic big city mayor , all playing integral parts in this unfolding plot, there's no doubt that a bevy of books on the 2011 election will one day line the shelves of Chicago History. But how will the ordinary Chicagoan note this historic election?
That's easy. For the historian, the numismatic, and the city-proud alike, The Chicago Disorder Preservation Society is "issuing a series of exclusive, limited-edition commemorative coins for each phase of the electoral contest." Their first set, a series of wooden tokens, is titled "The Wooden Nickel Edition, featuring 20 All-Star Citizens: the Original Petition Filers...rendered in the most 'worthless' coin form; the wooden token." As the election continues, the CDPS will continue minting its commemorative currency by issuing the "second series, The Chocolate Coin Edition featuring Board of Election Approved Mayoral Candidates... In the end, whether February or April, the series will culminate with a hefty, bling-encrusted medallion featuring the future mayor-elect."
These pieces crave your mantle like a midday nap craves a Hired Truck. Get 'em now online at the CDPS Facebook Store and at the official CDPS vending machine, "on the counter next to the lottery slips" in the convenience store in the Lower Lobby of Marina City, 300 N. State St.
