HOBO NICKELS

By US Mint (coin), National Numismatic Collection
(photograph by Jaclyn Nash) via Wikimedia Commons

From 1913 to 1938, the USA issued the "buffalo nickel" a/k/a the "Indian head nickel" (see above photo) as its five-cent piece. During the Great Depression, buffalo nickels became a favorite creative canvas for hobos to modify the image thereon by use of primitive tools such as nails or penknife blades. They would use these devices to turn the image of the Indian into a helmeted World War I soldier, a businessman sporting a bowler hat, and many other visages. Sometimes, they would also modify the bison on the reverse of the coin to resemble a hunchbacked man sitting on a toilet or some other image. On occasion, the engraver would include an anti-Semitic image or message.

Hobos engaged in this craft not merely to pass the time or satiate their creative outlets. The modified nickels, although technically worth five cents, could often be bartered for a dollar's worth of food.

Although there has always been a limited number of people carving on coins, the fad erupted in the case of buffalo nickels as a synergistic effect from the low face value of the coin (making the artistic medium cheap to acquire),  the large area of the coin covered by the image of head (making it much easier to engrave than say, Lincoln's head on the penny), and the large numbers of hobos existing during the Great Depression.

Hobo nickel manufacturing is not a lost art. There are skilled craftsmen today who, using sophisticated engraving equipment, turn out miniature masterpieces--sometimes totally removing the image of the Indian and using the face of the nickel as a blank page. These aesthetic achievements are usually easily distinguished from the far more primitive 1930s production examples. In addition, because buffalo nickels in decent condition are hard to find, and because some date and mint mark combinations are highly valuable, a modern engraving is more likely to have been done on a coin with a common date/mint mark and in poorer condition.

To see many more examples of both modern and older hobo nickels, simply visit The Original Hobo

Nickel Society website.

By Danthoms (Own work)
[CC BY-SA 4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)],
 via Wikimedia Commons