My latest hobo nickel - Engraving Forum.com - The Internet's Largest and Fastest Growing Engraving Community

SVD · #1 07-22-2010, 09:20 PM

May as well post my latest hobo nickel as well.

Back in March Billzach very kindly sent me a half-carved nickel to show me how it's done.

For my first real hobo I didn't take him up on his offer to carve the other half of that nickel - it's far to valuable as a study aid plus I'm not good enough yet. Instead I carved a copy to the best of my ability.

As I came up on my 10th coin I went back and did it again, to see if I'd improved (I had).

So this is coin number 20 and obviously time to re-visit my checkpoint.

This one came out pretty well, and didn't take horribly long. I think it only took about 5 - 6 hours but I can't be sure because I did it over a few days. I have some pulled / strained muscles in my right arm (had a pinched nerve locking them up, used them anyway) so I can only engrave for a little bit at a time.

Contacted the collector who's been buying all of my nickels and offered it to him directly (I did the same thing with #10) and he was glad to be able to keep up his streak. Assuming he got that first one from the person who got it, he now has the full set.

Daniel Houwer · #2 07-23-2010, 12:12 PM

Do I miss the picture?

SVD · #3 07-23-2010, 08:28 PM

Daniel

Well, you weren't but I was

That's what happens when you save a copy of your formatted message so you can post it in both forums - sometimes you forget to also upload the picture.

Thanks for waking me up.

Soco · #4 07-29-2010, 10:34 PM

looks like fun

SVD · #5 07-30-2010, 09:39 AM

They are and they're great practice.

Do a few on modern nickels first - that way you're using practice plates that only cost you five cents. Once you think you're starting to get the hang of it, hit a coin dealer and get some inexpensive buffalo nickels (probably cost you about 50 cents to a dollar each) and go to town. Don't forget, when you list your first one on eBay make sure to note it's your first one. And be sure to put 'Hobo Nickel' in the title so the collectors find it.

Oh yeah, a two sided one I finished yesterday that I'll be putting up soon I call "Tails on the Trail". The description is "Rocky better get moving, Thunder is on his tail!"