Molds are used for casting items, dies are used for making (stamping out) most coins, medals and tokens, these terms (molds and dies) are not interchangeable. Items cast in molds do not have the high degree of detail that those stamped from dies do. For instance coins are die struck not molded. These were not made from many individual molds by "locals". All these medals were die struck from one die at a factory set up for die cutting (die making) and stamping. Die struck items are not considered hand made items and you can see from Bramble's post that the ones with names on them were indeed hand engraved with the names AFTER the medals had been struck. Business cards or CDVs (Carte d'Viste) from the 1800s were MUCH larger than today's business cards and your block may well have been used for such, but your printing block could well have been used on other campaign paper items. It may have been used for newspaper ads for his campaign. 'Nuff said!!
