From my JFK medal to Trump's new coins

Presidential collectibles go way back, but the GOP candidate is doing it differently

A fresh breeze was blowing in American politics as 1961 began. A relic of that time sits on my desk: a bronze medal showing John F. Kennedy’s profile on the front and the presidential seal on the back. The medal, 2 ¾ inches in diameter, says “Inaugurated January 20, 1961.”

Kennedy was “the youngest person ever elected to the presidency, ready to succeed Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was then the oldest man ever to hold it, and who had been the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe when Kennedy was a navy lieutenant junior grade on PT 109 in the Pacific,” as Todd Purdom would later write.

The public knew well that Eisenhower, 71, had suffered a heart attack and a stroke while in office, while the serious health problems faced by Kennedy, 43, were mostly concealed. JFK was eager to contrast his vigorous image and his “new frontier” to the tired old faces of the Republican administration.

As he said in his Inaugural Address: “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend an…