Hobo Nickels

Grey Squirrel...that's kind of a hard question to answer. Education is the key. The Original Hobo Nickel Society has published a wonderful guidebook that covers many of the prolific early hobo nickel artists. They have certain diagnostics and artwork in many of their pieces. You can compare those diagnostic traits to determine whether you have an original artist. One thing I look for is an older Buff in XF or AU condition. The thinking here is those are the coins that would be used when they carved them 90-100 years ago. I can tell you that a nice original hobo can be upwards of $1,000 or more if you can identify the "artist."

Here is one of my favorite's, it's by an artist named Roughbeard, so named because of the characteristic beards he draws on his nickels. No one knows who Roughbeard was or where he lived but he is considered one of the original artists of the era.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought the carvers refer to any denomination of a carved coin as a "hobo nickel." I remember watching a video from one of the big names in modern hobo nickel carving and I *thought* this is what he said.

anyone?