Expert: Jim Lawniczak - 1/5/2012

Question
I'm from Texas and would like to collect all the Ralph hall encased. do you have any knowledge on these or were could it be found.questions like who made them,how many,which campaigns,how many different one. any help would greatly be appreciated

Answer
Mark, there were lots of Ralph Hall encased cents made.  I sent his office an email asking about them quite some time ago (I'd say around the early 2000s) and never got an answer.  I have many of them myself and can give you some information.  There may be more information on the website of the encased collectors international (do a google search for those three words).  

The first Ralph Hall I know of has a 1961 cent and says: Elect Ralph M. Hall Democrat State Senator, only 1 c sales tax.  In the next piece, 1968D, he is still running for state senator.  With a 1972 cent he is running for Lt. Gov. of Tex. 1973 cent marks the first of the Congressmen Hall pieces.  There are quite a few of them.  The latest date I have is 2002.

I have a 2000 piece in the original envelope, mailed to a couple in Fairview Texas, with the encased cent showing through a hole in the envelope.  Hope this helped a bit, Jim