Help Identifying A Good Luck Token (Id: Hobo/Jewish Nickel Token)

The obverse reminds me of a hobo nickel carving while the reverse features the universal pawnbroker's symbol of three suspended spheres.

Appears to be a generic style in the pattern of the hobo nickle as said. With the reverse a pawn brokers old style universal signage of the 3 hanging balls or globes. With out any one having one with an attributed source it will problematic to give a exact source

Good one, nss-52. You really had my blood pressure rising and my head shaking with that first line. It's not even April Fool's Day yet!



BTW, I believe the OP's token is just a generic Good Luck charm meant to be carried as a pocket piece.

nss-52, loved the story about the hobos and pawn shops. You had me believing it for a moment!

Thanks to biokemist6 and Circus for identifying the pawnbroker symbol. I hadn't known that before. And John1, that's a great token reference site, but I'm not sure I have the patience to sift through 184 pages of good luck tokens...!

Thanks, nss-52, for finding those photo references, and to everyone for pointing me in the right direction. I did some more sleuthing and found an article in a Numismatic Bibliomania Society publication last year about hobo nickels, including this excerpt:

MORE ON HOBO NICKELS AND ETHNIC SLURS

Last week Bob Leonard wrote:

The ethnic slur nature of the original "hobo nickels" has been swept under the rug by modern collectors, but it is established by the existence of pot metal tokens imitating this design on the obverse, with the pawnbroker's three balls on the reverse.

Bob Van Arsdell provided the above image of the piece referred to. He provides the dimensions as:

Weight: 6.7419 gms
Diameter: 23.62 mm



So it looks like my token is definitely a hobo nickel token, probably made from cast zinc. I appreciate everyone's help in identifying it!