Heritage Offers Dempsey Collection Of Hobo Nickels

CoinWorld - Heritage anticipates a record price for this two-sided Hobo nickel by legendary carver Bo Hughes, among the most ambitious of his works, when it is offered as part of the Chris Dempsey collection.



Hobo nickels — broadly described as examples of the Indian Head 5-cent piece with other designs carved on one or both sides after the " Buffalo nickel" has left the U.S. Mint — are a popular and specialized area with an excited collector base. Heritage will offer selections the Chris Dempsey Collection at a June 18 session of its U.S. Coins auction in Dallas.

Heritage describes the offering as "simply spectacular" and the consignment as "one of the finest Hobo nickel collections ever formed." Additional selections from the Dempsey Collection will highlight upcoming sales.

The catalog's introduction adds, "The popularity of these rare and uniquely interesting nickels continues to grow by leaps and bounds," anticipating that the collection will attract collectors of the genre, and perhaps introduce new people to this area.

The collection's "masterwork" is "what is perhaps the best-known and most important example of the famed carver known as "Bo." Heritage calls it "nothing short of legendary among Hobo nickel enthusiasts." It is carved on both sides of a 1935-dated host coin.

Heritage's cataloger adds, "This 1939-carved DICER nickel is unique among all of Bo's documented nickels, and it is far more ambitious than most of his other well-known works."

The obverse features a typical transformation of James Earle Fraser's Native American into a "hobo" with a neat beard, carved ear, re-shaped nose, and hat with a raised brim that Heritage suggests "foreshadows some of Bo's later carvings, with fully dressed, dished fields and a carefully executed portrait replete with large areas of pushed and raised metal."

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