In my fathers collection, I came across a engraved a 1913 Indian head nickel. The Indian however was engraved and looks like Charlie Chaplin. (kind of neat) Anyone have any information about this coin?
These are called "Hobo nickels" because they were popular as a sculpture medium among hobos. The buffalo nickel was the most popular coin for this sort of carving because of the large size of the head and the thickness of the coin and the design. Some of them are spectacular and many don't even resemble a man's face. A good article about them may be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_Nickels Can you post a picture of your coin? I've posted pictures of my two hobo nickels below.
