The hobo nickel is a sculptural art form involving the creative modification of small-denomination coins, essentially resulting in miniature bas reliefs. The nickel, because of its size, thickness, and relative softness, was a favored coin for this purpose. However, the term “hobo nickel” is generic, as carvings have been made from many different denominations.

Classic old hobo nickels (1913-1940)

Many talented coin engravers, as well as newcomers, started creating hobo nickels in 1913, when the buffalo nickel entered circulation. This accounts for the quality and variety of engraving styles found on carved 1913 nickels. More classic old hobo nickels were made from 1913-dated nickels than any other pre-1930s date.

Many artists made hobo nickels from the tens to twenties, with new artists joining in as the years went by. The 1930s saw many talented artists adopting the medium. Bertram Wiegand, known almost exclusively as Bert, began carving nickels in the teens, and his student George Washington Hughes, known as Bo, began carving in the late teens (and up to 1980). During this period, buffalo nickels were the most common nickels in circulation. (more…)

by Thomas K. DeLorey

By some standards George T. Morgan’s career as an Engraver at the United States Mint was a bitter disappointment. Stuck in the Assistant Engraver’s position for over 40 years, he designed only one regular issue U.S. coin in a 49-year tenure, and succeeded to the Chief Engraver’s position only after his predecessor’s lack of imagination had caused coin design to be jobbed out of the Mint to more illustrious designers such as Augustus St. Gaudens and Victor D. Brenner. However, his one coin, the Morgan Dollar, is perhaps the best known U.S. coin today.

Born in Birmingham, England in 1845, Morgan attended the Birmingham Art School, and won a scholarship to the South Kensington Art School. He worked as an assistant under the Wyons at the British Royal Mint, and had the Wyon family not established a several-generation dynasty of engravers in the Tower Mint might have enjoyed a successful career there.

Morgan was brought to the Philadelphia Mint in 1876 as a “Special Engraver,” reporting directly to Mint Director Henry R. Linderman, whose office had been moved to Washington, DC, in 1873. Considering the Byzantine political system under which the Mint in Philadelphia operated in this era, with nepotism and political cronyism the order of the day, his action naturally makes one wonder what the 69-year-old Chief Engraver William Barber and his son, Assistant Engraver Charles Barber, thought of this arrangement. (more…)

By Stephen A. Crain

Most collectors of the Liberty Seated design are familiar with The United States Half Dimes by Daniel W. Valentine. Yet very little is known about the man who provided us with this enduring reference, which has resulted, at least for me, in so many years of enjoyment and learning of the series that we both love so much. It would seem a fitting tribute to present to the members of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club what little information on this modest and selfless man that I have been able to uncover after several years of research.

It was in 1980 that I first picked up a copy of The United States Half Dimes and began to read of the fascinating series that would so preoccupy my life for the next quarter century. My journey into the study of these beautiful little silver coins resulted directly from the passionate descriptions that Dr. Valentine provided, yet he was acutely aware of the limitations of his efforts in writing about the half dimes, and admonished “…it would be vain to believe that this list is complete. My hope is that it may stimulate others to ‘carry on’”. Certainly, that torch was passed on to Russell J. Logan and John W. McCloskey, who provided us with the masterful reference The Federal Half Dimes 1792 – 1837. It is my hope to provide a similar reference on the Liberty Seated half dimes as a result of my continuing research on the series.

Daniel W. Valentine was born in New York City, on March 7, 1863. Little is known of his early years, except that he was educated in public and private schools, and later received his D.D.S. from the New York College of Dentistry in 1887. After spending one year in Vienna, he practiced dentistry in New York City from 1887 to 1896, and later moved to Englewood, New Jersey, where he practiced for another thirty-five years. (more…)

Republished from The E-Gobrecht - the Electronic Publication of the Liberty Seated Collector Club

Part 1-The Hiring of Christian Gobrecht

During a recent research trip to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, my research partner, Joel Orosz, had the excellent idea to call for the Robert M. Patterson personal papers. Three letters from Samuel Moore to Robert M. Patterson dated June, 1835 were located. At this time Moore was the outgoing director of the mint; Patterson assumed the Mint directorship in July, 1835. Patterson’s father had also been the Mint director, serving from 1806 to 1824. Tying the family knot even further, the incoming director Robert M. Patterson was the brother-in-law of the outgoing director Moore.

The first letter is dated June 16, 1835 and deals with the issue of hiring Christian Gobrecht as an engraver. Moore wrote to the Secretary of the Treasurer, Levi Woodbury, on the same day regarding the same issue. The Moore/Woodbury letter is largely reprinted in Breen’s Secret History of the Gobrecht Coinages. Between the two letters, it is clear that the outgoing director Samuel Moore dearly wanted to get Gobrecht hired into the Mint, which indeed occurred later in 1835. The first Moore/Patterson letter reads as follows (the second and third letters will follow in a subsequent edition of the E-Gobrecht). (more…)

By Doug Winter - CoinLink Content Partner - www.raregoldcoins.com

One of the most ambitious collecting projects ever undertaken was the No Motto half eagle set assembled by Chicago dealer Ed Milas. Not only did Mr. Milas attempt to assemble a complete set of these rare coins (struck between 1839 and 1866) but he did it, for the most part, in the highest grade possible. After working on this set for the better part of two decades, Milas sold his coins at auction through Stack’s in May, 1995.

The Milas set included 98 coins and was lacking only the 1842-C Small Date, 1854-S, 1863 and 1864-S to be totally complete. The coins ranged in grade from mid-AU to MS66 and included a host of individual pieces that were either Finest Known or high in the Condition Census for that specific issue. I would still rate this as one of the single greatest specialized U.S gold collections ever formed and it was one of the most interesting auctions that I ever attended.

I had seen a number of Ed’s coins on a piece-meal basis and had even sold him a few high-end Charlotte and Dahlonega coins indirectly. But it was with real excitement that I went to New York to view a collection that had attained true cult status among rare gold coin collectors and dealers alike.

I remember being very surprised to see that the Milas Collection had been sent to NGC to be graded. Stack’s, in the mid-1990’s seemed to sell far fewer encapsulated coins than their competitors and my initial reaction on viewing the coins in their holders was that NGC had gotten a little bit carried away in grading them. Of course today, these same coins in the same 1995 holders would seem almost quaintly undergraded. (more…)