A Scion Society of The Baker Street Irregulars
A 1937 Sherlockian Hobo Nickel by Gediminas Palsis
“I gazed with interest and some surprise upon the portrait.”
– The Hound of The Baskervilles (HOUN)
Back in 1992, the Original Hobo Nickel Society was formed to promote the collecting of engraved buffalo nickels that had been produced prior to 1980. Most of these “original” nickels were engraved with nails, knifes, files and perhaps some punches. In the years since the OHNS was founded, there have been many modern hobo nickels (and not just nickels, almost any coin) created by talented artists using microscopes and power tools. Depending on the quality of the work, these modern hobo nickels can cost many hundred of dollars.
Gedimas Palsis, a hobo nickel engraver from Lithuania, carved the above Sherlockian hobo nickel on a 1937 Buffalo nickel. You can see his monogram above Holmes’s shoulder. For those interested in seeing other examples of Palsis’s work, click HERE and HERE to check out his pages on Chris DeChristo: The Hobo Nickel Archive Pinterest boards.
Very interesting, but isn’t it illegal to deface negotiable coins?
Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who “fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.” This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.