Heritage describes the offering as”simply spectacular” and the consignment as”one of the finest Hobo nickel collections ever formed.” Additional selections from the Dempsey Collection will highlight forthcoming sales.
The catalogue’s introduction increases,”The popularity of the rare and visually intriguing nickels continues to grow by leaps and bounds,” anticipating that the collection will attract collectors of this genre, and perhaps introduce new folks into this area.
The group’s”masterwork” is”what’s perhaps the best-known and most significant example of the famed carver known as”Bo.” Heritage calls it”nothing short of legendary among Hobo nickel enthusiasts.” It is carved on either side of a 1935-dated server coin.
Heritage’s cataloger adds,”This 1939-carved DICER nickel is unique among all of Bo’s documented nickels, and it is a lot more ambitious than many of the other famous functions”
The obverse features a typical transformation of James Earle Fraser’s Native American into a”hobo” with a lovely beard, cast ear, re-shaped nose, and hat with a rose brim which Heritage indicates”foreshadows some of Bo’s afterwards amalgamated, with completely dressed, dished fields and a carefully executed portrait replete with big regions of pushed and raised metal”
The reverse is superbly explained by John Sculley who composed that the design is”a raucous celebration of life on the railings — three-dimensional hoboes have hopped a sexy shooter (DICER is’hobo-speak’ for a quick freight train). Two domed-hat gents are perched on the roof for a bird’s-eye view of the scene, even though a third party hobo lounges inside the vehicle, its door wide open to buff his blossom in the breeze. A circle having the angled slash is emblematic of a’secure course,’ unimpeded by the railroad bulls appearing to toss them from the train (or worse).”
When the coin has been offered from the 2013 Original Hobo Nickel Society Auction 23, it set a world-record price to get a hobo nickel. Its record has been broken when a carving by Bert sold for $31,200 at auction. Heritage expects that this piece by Bo will set a new record in its forthcoming auction look.
Carved on the reverse
The Dempsey Collection is particularly strong in cases which are carved on the opposite, changing Fraser’s bison into a variety of different forms. A 1930 host nickel includes a ditch undo by Bo, constituting a traveler using a walking stick. Heritage calls it one of Bo’s best reverse carvings, adding,”The nickel includes exceptionally large relief, with numerous areas of elevated metal and eliminated metal, in addition to beautifully dressed fields for exceptional eye appeal.”
The word TIRED is carved at which FIVE CENTS would normally be,”though we do not know if Bo was simply worn out from dividing the intricate details seen during the hobo’s face and apparel, or if the hobo himself was simply tuckered out from a very long journey,” Sculley clarifies. Delightful accents like a checkered handkerchief in his pocketpatches in his jacket along with a lumpy, whale-like knapsack add to the charm.
The latter portion of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is obscured, using simply the expression UNITED left undamaged, open to different possible interpretations. Joyce Ann Romines in her publication on Hobo nickels, suggests the use of this word supposed that hobos were”combined” in their way of life.
The bison was become a menagerie of critters in the palms of Bo along with his peers, using a donkey and mule being common, but intermittent transformations into a turtle or horse’s mind, as well as elephant, can be found.
Heritage writes,”The idea of a mule came from his childhood home, while a circus might have inspired the elephant.”
The offered case is carved on a 1937-S host coin, also comes with an early Del Romines OHNS certificate, #R-001 dated Feb. 1, 1994, and it was recently offered at Heritage’s June 2019 purchase of the Jack Royse Collection of Hobo Nickels, in which it sold for $1,680.
The catalogue for your Chris Dempsey Collection can be found on the internet in https://coins.ha.com/. Bidding in the auction is now underway and closes June 18.
