Want to make your own unique coins? There is a way! It's call sculpturing art and is flourishing here in 2007! During the 1850s sculptural artists began their art expertise using silver Liberty Seated coins from the tiny dime all the way through the Trade dollar as their canvases. Some plied their craft on Morgan dollars. Some sculptural artists ground off the Liberty Seated obverses and carved their own female renditions of Dame Liberty. Some just altered the designs by chisling away parts of Miss Liberty to create different effects or renditions. They were called Potty Coins. Thousands of Liberty Seated coins were taken out of circulation because of this. In 1913 was born the Indian head/Buffalo back five cent coin made of nickel. The thicker coin proved its worthiness as a sculptural art medium. Now the restraints of a female subject no longer existed, and the coin designs need not be ground off to make them suitable for use. The Hobo Nckel came into being. Their are three distinctive eras of Hobo Nickels: Classic old Hobo Nickels (1913-1940) Many talented coin engravers, as well as newcomers, started creating Hobo Nickels in 1913, when the buffalo nickel entered circulation. This accounts for the quality and variety of engraving styles found on carved 1913 nickels. More classic old Hobo Nickels were made from 1913-dated nickels than any other pre - 1930s date. Many artists made Hobo Nickels from the teens to twenties, with new artists joining in as the years went by. The 30s saw many talented artists adopting the art medium. Bertram Wiegand, known almost exclusively as Bert, began carving nickels in the teens, and his student George Washington Hughes, known as Bo, began carving in the late teens (and up to 1980). During this period, buffalo nickels were the most common nickels in circulation. How do we know this? As you visit the different linked websites below you will notice many Hobo Nickels were sculptured in a position that left the date of the coin intact; even the word "liberty" is untouched. Of course, the mint mark on the reverse is untouched. Here's an example of a genuine Hobo Nickel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Unknown6.jpg Later old Hobo Nickels (1940-1980) The 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s were a transitional period for sculptural art engravers, during which the buffalo nickel was gradually replaced by the Jefferson nickel. Some veteran old nickel carvers such as Bo and Bert continued making hobo nickels in the classic old style. Bo in fact did his best work in the early 1950s when he carved many spectacular cameo portrait Hobo Nickels. During this 40-year period, many new carvers appeared, and style and subject matter became decidedly modern. Subjects became more ethnically and socially diverse (i.e. a Chinese woman with triangular hat, hippies with long hair and glasses, men wearing floppy hats, etc). Some of these new artists used new techniques such as power engravers, vibrating tools, and felt marker pens to add color to hair. As you will see in the image links ahead, some coin engravers are well known and their art pieces are attributed to those artists. Also, you will learn that certain artists names are not known, but their art pieces are attributed to an "alias" or "nickname" based on a recurring aspect, such as, telephone ear, big ear, needle ear, peanut ear, apple cheek, beady eye, big nose, bushy beard and others. And there’s the nickname, hambone, because one unknown artist sculptured the buffalo on the reverse unto a hog. By the end of the seventies, the buffalo nickel disappeared from circulation, and most engravings were performed on worn coins. "Bo", for example, was forced to obtain buffalo nickels from coin dealers, some of whom commissioned carvings. Here's an example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Unknown6.jpg PS1. During World War II, some American, British, French and other POWs became sculptural artists using nickels, 20 pfennings pieces and other coins as new POWs were imprisoned. These are called POW Nickels and are very scarce commanding prices in the upper hundreds and lower thousands. If you see a coin with a caricature of Hitler, a German soldier's head wearing a helmit or an allied soldier (British, French, or other) carved on it, it is a POW Nickel and not a Hobo Nickel. Modern Hobo Nickels (1980-present) Many carvers active during the 1960s and 1970s continued carving buffalo nickels into the 1980s. Their coins were altered using punches (dashes, dots, arcs, crescents, stars) and some carving of the profile. The area behind the head is usually rough from dressing with a power tool. They created standard design Hobo Nickels (derby and beard), as well as many modern subjects, such as occupational busts (fireman, railroad engineer, pizza chef), famous people (Uncle Sam, Einstein), hippies, cartoon characters and others. A major event occurred in the early 1980s, demarcating the transition from "old" to "modern" hobo nickels. This was the publication of a series of articles by numismatist Del Romines, on the subject of hobo nickels. He soon published the first book on the subject, Hobo Nickels ), in 1982. Both centered on Bo and his carvings. This resulted in new artists entering the field, most of whom simply copied Bo's nickel artwork from the illustrations in Romines' book. The two major Bo-style copycats were John Dorusa and Frank Brazzell. Together they produced 20,000 or more modern carved nickels, most of which were copies of Bo's designs. Dorusa even copied Bo's "GH" signature (for "George Washington Hughes") on many of his early creations. Pressure from prominent hobo nickel collectors such as Bill Fivaz convinced Dorusa to stop carving "GH" and put his own initials or name on his works. Dorusa and Brazzell also produced original works, featuring non-traditional conquistadores, Dick Tracy, skulls, etc.) The large number of Bo copies led many collectors to label all modern carved nickels as "Neo-Bo's", a term no longer in use. Here's a link to three pages of Hobo Nickels and the artists or nicknames: http://www.hobonickels.org/showcase.htm Here are more interesting links: http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/08/hobo_nickels.html http://coin-collecting-guided.com/ebay.aspx?topic=hobo%20nickels How does one diffrentiate between a genuine Hobo Nickel made during the Depression Years? 1) A true Hobo Nickel shows wear on the cut lines, and and there is residue in the cuts. The coin should feel smooth and you should not be able to feel the engravings. 2) Most Hobo Nickels are good to very fine as the HOBOs used circulated coins. They are usually carved on one side, and the majority of real Hobo Nickels are modified on the Indian Head side and not the Buffalo side, although there are many carved Buffalos to be found. (The Indian side was easiest to carve due to the strong features and large working surface). Remember that HOBOs only had a knife, and not a modern day high-speed rotary tool with a coin snugly anchored in a vise. Here's two genuine Hobo Nickels: http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/4044/realhobo.html It is estimated that close to 200,000 early Hobo Nickels exist and another 200,000 modern ones exist. With only 400,000 available worldwide, there is room for more sculptural artists. After all each carving is an original. Are you going to be one of them? PS2. The most popular of the modern Hobo Nickels are those that are initialed, signed, have a serial number or come with a certificate of authenticity. Hope you enjoyed this "trivia"..... Clinker
Question for you Clinker - Can you guarantee me that I can safely ignore my Norton security program's warning about the site at the last link in your posting? The message was No problems with any of the other links.
hontonai: This posting is an old one. Since that link was posted, the website was purchased by another party. They added a new "member's only" access to all their bandwidrh new window popups. I could not guarantee access, nor do I suggest that you join their new program.... Clinker
