The Vanishing Art of Hobo Nickles
During the depths of the Great Depression, vast numbers of men wandered the country, searching for work. With few amusements to pass the idle hours, they had to make their own. And one of the ways to while away the time camped with other unfortunates was to whittle away at a buffalo nickle, transforming the Indian head on one side or the bison on the other into some outrageous figures.
Many of them may well have been little more than defacements, an expression of frustration at a country and economy that had failed them. But some came out so striking that people would take them at more than their face value, often keeping them as collector's items.
Many of them may well have been little more than defacements, an expression of frustration at a country and economy that had failed them. But some came out so striking that people would take them at more than their face value, often keeping them as collector's items.