Adam Leech: Documentary A Nickel And A Nail
Adam Leech: Documentary
A Nickel And A Nail
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Adam Leech A Nickel And A Nail
Click to viewThis is the first trailer reel for Adam's ongoing documentary film project... "A Nickel and a Nail: The Original Hobo Nickel Story." Currently in production. As you can see from this teaser there were a lot of scenes filmed at the 2011 FUN Show in Tampa. Take a look, maybe you'll see some of your Hobo Nickel carving friends. :)
FUN Convention TV Interviews Adam Leech
I first met Adam Leech at the 2011 FUN Show in Tampa. Adam and his friend cinematographer Jim Dziura had hitchhiked their way from Adam’s home town of Colorado Springs, Colorado as part of their documentary A Nickel And A Nail. I did a mini interview with both Adam and Jim about their Hobo style journey at the 2011 FUN Convention in Tampa. With no real “currency” just the Hobo Nickels they brought to use as “trade” they spent Five and a half days on the road hitchhiking through Sante Fe, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Houston, Beaumont, Baton Rouge, Biloxi, Mobile, Daytona, until they met Original Hobo Nickel President, Rollie Taylor in Orlando. Rollie fed them a meal and housed them briefly before helping them complete their mission to get to the FUN Convention in Tampa.
I caught up with Adam Leech again at the 2012 FUN Convention for a second video interview. He was at the show interviewing several carvers for the film. We talked about the film project A Nickel and A Nail and his quest for sponsors for the documentary film.
For Adam carving nickels has become a labor of love. Something he has shared with his children. In fact, his boys were carving at the 2012 FUN show and appear in one of the videos in this blog posting.
In our video interview Adam describes his time on the road as an experience of a lifetime. He talks about his introduction into the world of Hobo Nickel’s in 2008 and his quest to expose the tradition of nickel carving to a much wider audience than just the numismatic community. So without further ado, take a look at Adam Leech talking about his film "A Nickel and a Nail - The Original Hobo Nickel Story.
Hobo Nickel Carving Demonstrations
2011 FUN Show in Tampa
Hobo Nickel carving demonstrations at OHNS table at 2011 FUN Show in Tampa, Florida. Various carvers were filmed and photographed. Adam Leech and the infamous Odus, a stuffed hobo doll believed to embody the true spirit of Hobo's on the road were part of the group of carvers featured.
Excerpt from Numismatic News
Hobo Nickel Sets Records
Another record was broken at this year’s show. Nine contemporary hobo nickel carvers were in attendance. The previous record was seven in 2006. At this year’s show, several of these carvers gave hobo nickel carving demonstrations at the OHNS bourse table. Many children stopped by to view the demonstrations and pick up a free starter hobo nickel. Read the entire article here
A Photo Journey
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Click To Enlarge & View
Photo Credit Adam Leech and Jim Dziura
Tampa Cityscape by Erin Leigh
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Click To Enlarge Photo Credit Fred Lake FUN Staff Photographer
-Last Photo Credit Adam Leech and Jim Dziura
Odus & A Look At Adam's Nickels
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Click To Enlarge & View
Photo Credit Adam Leech and Jim Dziura
The Buzz On The Web
A Nickel And A Nail
And so it begins...
The first blog post as they set out on their journey.
Nickel And A Nail
We began filming a few days ago around Colorado Springs, and got some very interesting interviews: Ken Hallenbeck at Hallenbeck Coin Gallery, and Scott O'Malley from the Western Jubilee Warehouse both spoke extensively on hobos and hobo nickels. We were unable to get together with anyone at the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum to see about filming their archived collection of nearly 200 hobo nickels, but they agreed to send pictures and speak a little bit with me when I get back from Florida.
We are still planning on taking I-25 south to Sante Fe, I-40 east to Nashville, and then I-24 to I-75 south. My wife insisted that I bring my cell phone, so if anyone along our route wants to drop us a line with a ride or floor to crash on, we will pay handsomely in gratitude and hobos ...
Source CSIndy Blog
A Nickel and a Nail
The Original Hobo Nickel Story
A Nickel and a Nail − the Original Hobo Nickel Story
A Documentary project in Colorado Springs, CO by Adam Leech is featured on the Original Hobo Nickel Society's website and again Here Be sure to check it out.
Collector finds history in forgotten art form of hobo coins
Collector finds history in forgotten art form of hobo coins
They're one of the few, 100 percent American forms of folk art. They were originated by American hobos carving on American currency - the Indian head nickel, really the most American of all coins since the obverse features a Native American Indian and the reverse shows the indigenous American buffalo. They're part of our shared history.”
The idea for “A Nickel and a Nail” was born from Leech's desire to visit the Florida United Numismatists show last January, where a handful of other hobo nickel geeks were planning to show, trade and gab about their obsession. Leech decided to hitchhike to Florida, hobo style, and fund the trip solely by trading nickels along the way. He took a filmmaker along to capture the whole thing on video.
“I asked my wife, who thought I was crazy but humored me enough to give her consent, and I called up my friend Jim Dziura, who makes insanely awesome films, and said, ‘Hey, Jimi, wanna hitchhike to Florida next January with nothing but a handful of hobo nickels?' Naturally, he agreed.”
The film, envisioned as “a sort of road movie, just us hitchhiking,” turned into something bigger: a full-blown historical mash note to the medium, seen through the lens of a fellow hobo.
“My hope,” Leech said, “is that the film will expose the tradition to a much wider audience than just the numismatic community.
Read the entire article on Yuma Sun or Colorado Springs.com
Hobo Nickels: Colorado artist Adam Leech needs help to highlight the lost folk-art form
By Jonathan Shikes Fri., Nov. 4 2011
Hobo nickels: Colorado artist Adam Leech needs help to highlight the lost folk-art form
A Nickel and a Nail aims to be an expansive history of the hobo nickel. Leech interviewed collectors, folklorists, Original Hobo Nickel Society members including the president, Archie Taylor II, and Taylor's father, who was president before him. He has also lined up musical acts for the soundtrack.
"Nobody really knows about it," Leech says about hobo nickels. "It's fascinating, even people who should know [i.e. coin collectors] don't."
Leech and Dziura brought no money on their trip aside from the defaced coins jingling in their pockets; and they had no itinerary, train-hopping, hitch-hiking, and dumpster-diving across the states using hobo nickels as gifts for those who helped them. The pair left Colorado Springs on January 1, 2011, and arrived in Tampa, Florida, is time to meet up with the Original Hobo Nickel Society at a coin show one week later.
Read the entire article WestWard.com
What They Encountered While At The FUN Show
Hobo Nickel Sets Record
Hobo nickel sets record Posted on January 21, 2011 by NMN
A record price $7,700 price was realized at the Original Hobo Nickel Society auction held Jan 8 in conjunction with the 2011 Florida United Numismatists convention in Tampa, Fla., reports the club.
It was achieved by an Indian Head nickel coin carved by hobo artist George Washington “Bo” Hughes. The price includes a 10 percent buyer’s fee. Although not the highest price paid for a hobo nickel, the $7,700 is a record paid for a carving by “Bo.”
The record paid for a hobo carving was established at the 2008 OHNS auction. At that sale, a carving by hobo artist Bert Wiegand, “Bo’s” mentor, sold for $9,020 including the buyer’s fee. This year’s record-setting hobo nickel by “Bo” is a portrait of Bert. The “LI” and “Y” were removed from “LIBERTY” to spell “BERT.”
Another carving, a beautiful two-sided hobo nickel by an artist nicknamed “Twofer,” realized $3,410.
A new auction record was also set this year with a hammer price of $48,425 for 117 regular lots and three donated lots of hobo-related items. The total reached was $53,030.50. The previous high for an OHNS auction was set in 2009 when 138 regular lots and seven donated lots sold for a grand total of $47,701.45.
Continue reading this article on Numismatic News
Whittlers Carve Beauty At Show
Whittlers carve beauty at show March 28, 2009 3:15 PM
Excerpt
"It's my new waste of time," exhibitor Adam Leech said. "I found a piece of driftwood on vacation and had a pocket knife and I put the two together and I've been at it ever since."
Leech also uses his tools to deface nickels. He turns Thomas Jefferson's mug into the likes of Bart Simpson and Barack Obama.
"Whittling on a nickel was popular during the Great Depression by guys riding the rails who would trade the nickel for a place to stay," he said. "It's a tradition that's kind of dying."
Read more on the Gazette
The Quest For Backers For The Film Begins On Kick Starter
With their pal Odus, a stuffed hobo doll that they believe embodies the true spirit of the road, they set out on a journey of over 2,200 miles. Leaving in sub-freezing weather, with nothing but their bindlesticks, Jim's cameras, Adam's carving tools, and a couple of bucks scrapped together from the sale of a few hobo nickels the day before, the pair set their sights on Tampa, Florida, and the 19th annual meeting of the Original Hobo Nickel Society
What they experienced was a true tale of American adventure and anonymity, with filled with characters that can only be found on the wild, open American road. Making their way from truck stop to truck stop, sleeping in ditches, and hustling hobo nickels for rides, the pair tried desperately, and in vein, to find anyone who had ever even heard of a hobo nickel, let alone wanted to purchase one. Their adventures finally bring them to the FUN show, an internationally renowned coin show presented by the Florida United Numismatists, with millions upon millions of dollars in currency, coins, and solid gold on display, culminating in an auction where a single hobo nickel sold for an astonishing $7,700!
A Nickel and a Nail is a documentary film project that intends to not only tell their story, but the story of the Original Hobo Nickel, a truly unique and nearly forgotten form of American folk art that dates back 100 years.
Source Kick Starter
Kickstarter Campaign Falls Short, But Adam Leech Still Hopes To Make Movie
Hobo nickels: Kickstarter campaign falls short, but Adam Leech still hopes to make movie
Time ran out last week for Adam Leech on Kickstarter.com. The Colorado Springs entrepreneur known for his vintage clothing and collectibles store, Leechpit, had been trying to raise a large sum of money to complete his documentary, A Nickel and a Nail: The Original Hobo Nickel Story.
Leech wants to create an expansive history of hobo nickels to share the bas-relief style folk art with a public who knows little to nothing about them.
The Depression-era art form began with buffalo nickels, which were pressed by the U.S. Mint from 1913 to 1938. The hobo nickel artists carved their own caricatures into the soft metal of the coins. Originally, "hobos," prisoners and other people with more time than money would carve the coins with nails, hoping to trade these small works of art for a meal or a bed instead of a five-cent market value.
But with $15,226 pledged, Leech fell short of his $38,013.05 goal. That amount would have covered every foreseen cost to complete the documentary. Unfortunately for Leech, by Kickstarter rules, if the goal is not met, no money is exchanged.
Leech admits his original goal was lofty, but he feels he knows more about the game now and plans to track down his larger monetary supporters to see if they are still willing to work with him financially. From there, Leech will start a new Kickstarter page, with a more reasonable goal
"One way or another, the movie will come out early 2013" says Leech 2013 will mark the hundred-year anniversary of both the buffalo nickel and the hobo nickel.
But even if he has to make the movie on a "shoe string hobo budget" Leech is determined. "It is a hundred-year story, never told. It is all worth doing."
Read the entire article and view photographs at the Source Westward
A Year Later 2012 FUN Show
Passing The Torch
Adam's Son Carves At The 2012 FUN Show
Activity at Original Hobo Nickel Society (OHNS) table at 2012 F.U.N. Show in Orlando, Florida. It is interesting to note that 2.39 minutes into this video you see Adam's son carving a nickel. As I mentioned in my video interview with Adam, he really has passed his love of carving down to his children.
Hobo nickel' brings $13,750
'Hobo nickel' brings $13,750 Specialty areas thrive in hobby
By Steve Roach-Coin World Staff | April 02, 2012 6:58 a.m.
In January, at the Original Hobo Nickel Society’s sale, held at the Florida United Numismatists convention in Orlando, an Indian Head 5-cent piece carved by Bert Weigand sold for $12,500 - or $13,750 with the buyer’s fee.
The OHNS - which has 430 members - said that the price represented a new record for a single hobo nickel carving. The auction realized more than $50,000 total across nearly 140 lots including multiple pieces that realized in excess of $1,000.
Bertram “Bert” Weigand and George Washington “Bo” Hughes are the “old masters” of hobo nickel carvers. Bertram, born around 1890, was Bo’s friend and mentor. Both men actively carved from around 1913 - when the Indian Head 5-cent piece was first issued - through the mid-20th century.
Read Steve's entire article on this topic on Coin World
Photograph Attribution And Consent
Attribution the act of attributing; ascription.
Credit The ascription or acknowledgment of something as due or properly attributable to a person, institution, etc.
We try to source everything at FUN Forums. Thus why you will find links to other sites where articles, videos and photographs were originally posted. Please contact us if you have any concerns regarding our sourcing or photographs.
Photographers
Photographs from the road trip are courtesy of Adam Leech and Cinematographer Mr. Jim Dziura
Fred Lake FUN Staff Photographer: Credit for Fred's work is given under each of his photographs.
Erin Leigh: Erin's work appears on FUN Forums & FUN Convention TV as a "courtesy" to Florida United Numismatists. Copyright (c)2012 by Erin Leigh. This work by Erin Leigh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License Photograph(s) may be used within the terms of the license . Although, special arrangements may also be made for photographs. Please list photo attribution (credit) as "Erin Leigh” “FUN Forums" and link attribution to FUN Forums http://fun-forums.livejournal.com/
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