Wednesday, April 11, 2012

-hobo nickels-

The sudden scarcity of jobs in the early 1930s forced a huge number of men to hit the road. Certainly some coins were carved to fill the idle hours. More importantly, a ‘knight of the road,’ with no regular source of income, could take one of these plentiful coins and turn it into a folk art piece, which could in turn be sold or traded for small favors such as a meal or shelter for a night.







22 comments:

  1. WhitelinePsychoApril 11, 2012 at 4:08 PM

    Absolutely brilliant Max, treasure that heritage mate . . . love the way the "Liberty" was mostly left untouched.

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  2. Mark HarrisApril 11, 2012 at 5:27 PM

    Really cool!

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  3. Sidecar RoyApril 11, 2012 at 5:58 PM

    Holy fuck! "Really Cool" doesn't even come close! This may be the coolest shit I've ever seen. Max, have u made any of these? Seems like good way to pass the time. I've seen rings out of quarters, but nothing like that buffalo nickel with the Indian skull. Whoa.

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  4. max schaafApril 11, 2012 at 6:07 PM

    ...never have. i'd like to give it a whirl, if i ever have the time. inspiring to say the least.

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  5. Danny MellApril 11, 2012 at 6:23 PM

    hey max do you have any idea how those dudes made those? sometimes i'm on the bum and it'd be nice to have something to show for it.

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  6. max schaafApril 11, 2012 at 7:35 PM

    supposedly most were just made with a knife.... cause that is all they carried. must of needed sharpened quite often.

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  7. Paulo - Joe KingApril 11, 2012 at 8:32 PM

    that kind of talent should be worth so much...things have always been twisted...

    You're right...it is fucking rad...and you have A knife!! ha!

    Coolest thing I've read/seen today, Max...thanks for that!

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  8. jason webberApril 11, 2012 at 10:03 PM

    i'd seen a picture of that Indian skull nickel before but had no idea what it was till now, so rad.

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  9. ssromeyssApril 12, 2012 at 3:18 AM

    Are they pure silver?

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  10. AznaApril 12, 2012 at 5:56 AM

    My father had a huge collection on silver dollars , but this is the first time i have seen somthing like this . This is amazing

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  11. Faythe LevineApril 12, 2012 at 8:01 AM

    Super sick! If I'm not mistaken the second image is either contemporary or heavily inspired a maker who goes by the name Tony Bones. I first saw them on the Needles & Pens website www.needlesandpens.com (a shop located in SF)

    He also has a few pieces on his Etsy shop.
    www.etsy.com/shop/tonybones

    As always thanks for another rad post.

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  12. max schaafApril 12, 2012 at 11:29 AM

    thanks faythe.

    and some info:
    All buffalo nickels were struck in the same alloy of 75% copper / 25% nickel that has been used for all 5-cent pieces except the famous "war nickels" made during WW 2. The latter were made of silver, copper, and manganese because nickel was a strategic war metal.

    The term "nickel" was applied to the coin long before the buffalo design was adopted.

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  13. Jet City JugheadApril 12, 2012 at 12:16 PM

    Cooler than the other side of the pillow. Thanks for sharing.

    Hope all is going well for you Max.
    Anthony

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  14. scott pommierApril 12, 2012 at 1:28 PM

    amazing

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  15. BUZZARDSALINASApril 12, 2012 at 3:54 PM

    Damn works been scarce for me like a mofo..i be a nickle makin sun of a bitch back then ...bucket full...good story..imma go bust out some nickels...

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  16. JustinApril 13, 2012 at 5:07 AM

    Funny, I just was looking at shit on eBay and came across that second one. That Indian skull is cool as hell. I'm gonna try my hand at carving some nickels.

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  17. ssromeyssApril 13, 2012 at 8:35 AM

    Thanks for the reply Max. I really dig the information on the metals.

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  18. FatassApril 14, 2012 at 12:45 PM

    That is truly unbelievably cool. Even the bums suck now.

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  19. FAesApril 15, 2012 at 11:44 PM

    amazing post!!!

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  20. OcchioLungoApril 20, 2012 at 10:46 AM

    I watched a video on you tube about how to carve hobo nickels a few weeks ago. I don't have the link, but there are million videos on there. I suppose that a magnifying glass would be the first thing that I'd need to get started.

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  21. Crazy Heart LeatherJune 5, 2012 at 1:59 AM

    Really cool.

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  22. Crazy Heart LeatherJune 5, 2012 at 2:00 AM

    Really cool.

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