Show Off Your Coin Artwork

They say art is just like beauty, being in the eye of the beholder. I titled this little gem "Wrong Side Of The Center Of The Tracks." Or "Lincoln Meets The 4:15." I did this on the way home from High School circa 1977. I'm sure many of you did this too. All you need is a penny (or other sacrificial coin) and a non electric train.

I tried this once on the tracks for the Skokie Swift (electric train) and the penny was vaporized into the track. I placed the penny obverse side up. The cool part was the image of the reverse was on the surface of the track but was reversed like a mirrored image. Very cool.

Sorry, didn't know I had a PM button. The best site for hobos is hobonickels.org

This is the site for the Original Hobo Nickel Society, lots of pictures and info. Costs of hobos can range from $5 or so for a low grade coin with a low grade scratch job up to several thousand for a high quality carving on a better grade coin, sometimes with inlays. There are two engraving forums that mostly deal with firearms engraving, but there is a pretty good number of coin carvers who also post they are

http://www.engravingforum.com/
and
http://www.engraverscafe.com/

These sites can give you info on carving, but nothing beats personal assistance (shameless plug). I teach coin carving 101 - creating the modern hobo nickel at the ANA summer seminar and we take 8 students each year. This will be in the June-July time frame next year. If you are interested, I would recommend watching the ANA's site for when class sign up becomes available as it fills up fast. Hobo carvers are a very friendly bunch, most have no problem offering up assistance. At my class this year, Ron Landis (of Gallery Mint fame) sat in for the whole week with his engraving setup and let the students try out all his tools. He may be back next year teaching an advanced class. OK, gotta go. I will try to find my PM button, but if not, my E-mail is gtsport at America on Line.
Joe

FatFreddy (sounds like I'm being mean to you), I completely understand where you are coming from. There seems to be a few different reasons for doing this so I'll give you mine.

The Liberty nickels where suffering from what is referred to as verdigris. And like a cancer, left untreated, it continues to destroy the coin, plus, the coin looks like cr*p. Whether you want to call it preserving the coin or cleaning the coin, doing nothing is not an option. The coin is already ruined and I'm just improving its appearance.

Did you see the picture of the green nickel?

allot of the modern "hobo nickel" carvers use gunsmith tools, the same ones that people will use to carve designs in guns with. I have seen some amazing coins carved like this like the ones badger mint has posted. Some people I have seen put gold leaf in their carvings and it makes them really look nice. One was a prospector and I believe he had a gold tooth or something, it looked amazing in hand. I tried my hand at it one time and even though I can draw very well and even worked for an advertising company it didn't go well

Nice work nohope587 !! Is that your collection or did you make all of them? I'd like to see a few of them up close.

Drawing by US Mint AIP Master Designer Joel Iskowitz, designer of the 2009 Lincoln Cent "Professional Life" among many others. And yes, the 1909-S VDB is part of the drawing.

What's your most popular design? Looks like it's Mercury.