Miss Kitty

Marion Morrison

Baralawr Barry

I deas for great nickel carvings... where do they come from? What shall I attempt next? How can I keep the concept original? Can I produce a better carving than my last one? Can I draw an excellent layout for use before the actual engraving starts? Can any of the existing elements of the original nickel be used in the new design?

First carving.

Second carving.

T hese are all issues that should be considered as the process begins. I must be extra careful not to remove too much metal, but enough to get a desirable relief carving. I must study the existing high and low areas on the nickel so as to reduce problems that will surely develop if I chose to ignore them prior to starting the engraving. An example of a problem area would be on the obverse side of the coin where the neck and jaw of the Indian intersect. This is a very low area on the coin and almost always seems to be where the carver would desire more metal being present.
A nother challenge to overcome is keeping the date & liberty intact, not only while carving, but on completion of the piece. Last ,but not least, is completing the coin with a very smooth field surrounded the subject giving the appearance of having been struck as opposed to being carved. The carver should always be striving for a superior graded nickel.
W e newer carvers are fortunate to have some wonderful engravers to look up to for ideas, inspiration and very high quality, deep relief work. Engravers such as: Steve Adams, Sam Alfano, Lee Griffiths, Bill Jameson and Ron Landis, to name a few, who continue to produce carved nickels that simply "blow me away" and inspire me to move to greater heights.

Third carving.

Fourth carving.

T o produce "a great nickel" is to invest a good deal of time in the planning of the piece, long before any tools contact the metal. Possibly this becomes easier as one gets more experience working on the coins? I can not say it has gotten easy for this carver to date. I need to get excited about an idea for a new layout: even in some cases, apprehensive as to my ability to pull off the design properly. How can one become a better engraver if he or she is not willing to move out of their comfort zone?
M y hope is that this will give new carvers as well as the collectors a better appreciation of what must take place to produce high quality carved coins and that the ones that are created will be valued more than ever before.

    We headed over to the train yard. It was eighteen degrees, and my feet were so cold that I couldn't tell where the earth ended and I began. The visible vapor of my breath carried on for miles before dissipating. We clung to the cold ground of the rail embankment, hiding from the yard bulls and waiting for a train that might never come.
    We were hiding in the woods between some drug dealers and the rails. Eventually, the drug dealers noticed us and were none too pleased with our presence. “You guys can't be here, you'll get shot.” “Who's going to shoot us?” “Do I look like I'm kidding?” “Right.”
    We moved up the yard and continued waiting. Eventually a junker south-bound train rolled in. As soon as we heard the brakes air out, we were running. Our feet crunched along the gravel as we sprinted down the line. Tanker, Grainer, Tanker, Tanker, Boxcar... sealed, Tanker, Grainer, Grainer, Boxcar... sealed, Boxcar... sealed, crap crap crap no ridable cars, Boxcar... sealed, Boxcar.... open!
    We threw our stuff in, hammered a railroad spike into the door, and hid in the back corner of the car. Unfortunately, both doors were open - so we had a hell of a time hiding from all possible angles. Eventually the slack action jolted us, and we were moving. We watched the night-time scenery roll by and gazed at the clear night sky.
    The temperature on a moving boxcar was even lower, so we had to get into our sleeping bags. Even then we were freezing, and we had to constantly get out and hide as we passed through switching yards.

    North Platt, Nebraska is the biggest railyard in the world. It is said to have overhead cameras, an arrest without warning policy, and an infinate number of yardcops.
    Kirsten and I couldn't both hide in the foxhole of our hopper, so I ran back to the next hopper in our string and hid there. If all went according to plan, I was to meet Kirsten back at our original hopper during the next crewchange. Of course, nothing went according to plan.
    Luckily, the sun had just set as we rolled into the yard. Our train sided next to a bazillion others, and I hid the best I could. There's barely enough room for me in the foxhole of a hopper, so it's not possible for me to move my legs out of the fetal position. The workers set off on checking our string. Apparently my car had a broken part, so there was a swarm of activity followed by an excruciating 45 minute period where a single worker was waiting for someone to deliver a part. Eventually my muscles started to spasm, and I wanted for our train to move more than anything. After 2 hours, I almost couldn't take it any more.
    Our train finally started moving, and everything went wrong. It should have been obvious that they were humping the train, but I was too blinded by my agony and impatience. The car behind me was a hopper too, so I couldn't see what was happening when they cut both of us loose over the hump. All I thought was that the train was reversing astoundingly fast.
    When my car hit the others at the bottom of the hill, my head slammed into the wall, I bit through my tounge, and everything flashed white. When I woke up I asked audibly “Where am I?” and crawled out of the foxhole just as another car came careening down the hill and slammed into mine. The shock threw me off the car and into the train next to us, where I bruised my shoulder and landed hard on my wrist. I was with-it enough to realize that I was in a bad place, and so stumbled away from the hump, spitting blood.
    At this point it still hadn't occured to me that they were humping the train. For some reason I assumed that they had just disconnected my mini-string, and that Kirsten was zooming across Nebraska with the rest of the train. So I managed to find the east-bound gate and sneak up a treeline until I found the west-bound counterpart. I climbed into an open boxcar and blacked out again.
    In the morning I could barely move, but managed to rip open the packet of “Emergen-C” that Alex had given me. I poured it into the 5 swallows of water that I had left, and passed out again. When I woke up the second time, I found that my boxcar was a part of a 2-unit 800-car string moving west. I didn't have any food or water, so I looked up at the clouds and hallucinated for the all-day trip to Cheyene.
    In Cheyene my kidneys were hurting, and I drank water as if I'd never tasted it before. I got some food out of the Subway dumpster and had a feast - laying out on the warm asphalt and feeling happy to be alive.

    I thought about the train ride there, and wondered why it had affected me so differently than a ride in a car. I had brought a lot of reading along, but hardly read any. 32hr train rides sound long, but I found myself spending hours and hours staring out into the country side from the well of a 48 without even thinking about the passage of time.
    On the train, I end up feeling very small in the world. Everything around me is so big, and I'm traveling through it with absolutely no control. The train doesn't give a damn about me. It doesn't care if I'm out of water, if I'm starving, or if I'm going in the wrong direction. If it throws me off or cuts me in half, it will just keep moving as if nothing at all has happened. I'm just as helpless, or more, than a bug crawling across the hot metal.

Generated a $425 Contribution

Generated a $375 Contribution

    Hobo Nickels Part of CCL Casino Night... Successful Charity Auction ~ Creative Community Living (CCL) of South Central Kansas, Inc. is the leading provider of services for people with developmental disabilities in south-central Kansas.
   CCL held their 2005 Casino Night on Saturday, February the 19th, and Bob Finlay donated two of his deeply sculpted nickels. Both of his carvings were a big hit! He was concerned that they might go for a song since there were unlikely to be two carved nickel collectors present to generate a successful auction result. He was right in that there weren't any carved nickel collectors present but that didn't hinder the bidding!
   I understand that the evening generated roughly $12,000. Bob's efforts contributed $800... a meaningful portion of that support for CCL. ~ Verne R. Walrafen

Warm Hospitality ~ 4.11g I'm Just Restin' ~ 4.32g A Class Act ~ 4.10g Joulupukki ~ 3.93g Loitering? Me? ~ 4.15g Snug Hideout ~ 4.39g Gandy Dancer ~ 4.26g Barber ~ 3.13g Frasier's Friend ~ 4.83g Scroll to view more photos.                                             Click on any photo to view an enlargement.

Another Trip Through The Flint Hills ~ On our trip back from Joe Rust's wake in Arkansas Caroline and I dropped in on Bob Finlay to see what he was up to. The nine carved nickels shown here are the latest creations from Bob's engraving bench. I particularly like the satchel sitting on the path to the outhouse waiting for its owner to finish “resting.” Acquiring these imaginative carvings certainly was reward enough but that huge slab of ribs at Bobby D’s Merchant Street Barbecue afterwards definitely put the perfect finish to the trip. ~ Verne R. Walrafen

Postscript ~ Shortly after we got home Dick Sheehan informed us that he had just carved the really COOL! nickel shown here on the left. He referred to it as his “Ol Traveling Hobo” but I enjoy developing names myself for many of the carvings I purchase. This Sheehan carving really “spoke to me” and I had a “blast” naming this one. Naming a carving is often more rewarding than the simple act of acquisition.    Baralawr Barry is an old Welshman who is well known for his predilection for Teisennau cocos â baralawr, “Cockles and Laverbread”, as you can tell from his expansive waistline. Laverbread... “Bara Lawr” ...is a traditional Welsh delicacy produced from the edible seaweed “laver” which grows on rocky shores west of Swansea and Barry is Welsh for marksman which his Mam and Tad hoped he would grow up to be.

Click on any photo to view an enlargement.
1913 TypeI Buffalo Nickel (1913-1938)		1913 TypeII Buffalo Nickel (1913-1938)

   Contemporary American Folk Art ~    “Folk,” according to etymological dictionaries, means “of the people.” I offer for your consideration the following excerpts, clips if you will, from the pen of Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History, as published in his article: Contemporary American Folk Art: Charming Junk or Art with a Capital A?.
   Surely I am not alone in judging these observations to be wholly applicable to our own little corner of the world of “Folk Art”... carved nickels, our mutually shared obsession.
   Not all classic folk art collectors were delighted with the contemporary work, and indeed, it still meets resistance from this quarter where one would most expect to find support.
   Initially, most contemporary folk art appeared to be made by rural or small town untrained individuals.
   The exclusion of folk art into a category such as “the other,” a term of popularity among critics in recent years, comes from the point of view of seeing the contemporary art world as an exclusive community of avant-garde (or semi-advanced) artists who are shown and recognized by major galleries, museums, critics and magazines in a few American cities.
   The concept of who is an artist frequently depends on training, including academic credentials, or-as practiced for many centuries--apprenticeship. The self-trained also has a long history.
   The reason people collect contemporary folk art involves many motives, some apparent, others deeply buried in the psyche. Objects can become talismans or trinkets of memory. Collectors might accrue monetary value from astute purchases, and art collecting can impart status in some quarters.
   Making art involves skill and technique but most importantly a vision and a language with which to communicate. Great visions or profound insights can come from many quarters. Sometimes it takes great strength and courage for the artist to express them. Jean Dubuffet explained: “True art is always to be found where one least expects it, there where no one is thinking of it, or mentioning its name.” ~ Richard Guy Wilson
   Most nickel carvers begin by emulating the classic nickel carvings that originally were done on Buffalo Nickels, 1913-1938. Here we are several generations down the veil of time from our classical roots and I propose it is time that we expand our view of what we are doing. While repeating, and most often expanding upon, the classic carvings on Buffalo Nickel host coins will always hold the added attraction of nostalgia... I hope to promote and support the expansion of nickel carving into the 21st century.

1971 Jefferson Monticello Nickel (1938-2003)

   Historically a few carvings have been done on Jefferson Nickels... you know... those horrible plain designs that the U.S.Mint had the bad judgment to replace our beloved Buffalo Nickels with! Poor Thomas... he never had a chance... bad press... a bum rap! We all know one's second spouse never lives up to the better moments you shared with your first spouse... if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in that unenviable position of course.
   Those carved Jefferson nickels often went begging for a home... scorned by one and all. Definitely not as financially rewarding as similar quality carvings on Buffalo Nickels. It is time for carvers and collectors alike to give serious consideration to including contemporary nickels as a legitimate continuation of the art form we lovingly refer to as “Hobo Nickels.”

2004 “Louisiana Purchase / Peace Medal” & “Keelboat” Nickels

   What better time could we hope for than here in 2004 and 2005 when the U.S.Mint is issuing the first new nickel designs in more than six decades? The Westward Journey Nickel Series has already provided us with four new nickel designs. One in particular, the American Bison design, connects us back to yesteryear and our classic nickel carving roots.

2005 “American Bison” & “Ocean in view! O! The joy!” Nickels

   If nothing else... this soapbox spiel ought to stir up some controversy and discussion. I know that I will be buying nickel carvings done on contemporary nickels when our currently active carvers create them. ~ V-Dubya

W ASHINGTON – Amid the drama of American Indian drumming, singing and dancing, in the presence of the revered American Bison, United States Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore presented the new 2005 American Bison nickel to the American people in a Capitol Hill ceremony. “The 2005 American Bison nickel will look significantly different from any nickels you’ve seen,” she told the crowd. “It marks the first time that the image of President Jefferson has ever changed on the nickel, and we have the word 'Liberty' in his handwriting.” Looking at Cody, the live Buffalo, she added, “There is a beautiful, strong, classic American bison on the reverse.”
H onored speakers included Senator Michael B. Enzi (R-WY); U.S. Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral; Mr. Emil Her Many Horses of the Oglala Lakota, Associate Curator of the National Museum of the American Indian; Daniel P. Jordan, President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation; and Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts. Cody, a 2000-pound American Bison, stood nearby, bringing to life the new reverse image on the 2005 nickel.
F ollowing the ceremony at Upper Senate Park, the National Nickel Exchange proceeded inside Union Station with a public exchange of bills for $2 rolls of shiny, new American Bison nickels.
T he Nation’s new 2005 nickels with a bold, new image of President Thomas Jefferson on the obverse and an American bison on the reverse, went into circulation Monday, February 28. Millions of new nickels that look significantly different from the Nation’s previous 5-cent coins are on the way to the Nation’s banks. Americans can expect to receive the new nickels in their change in a few weeks or they can ask for them at their local banks.
T he American Bison nickel is the third design in the United States Mint’s Westward Journey Nickel Series™, which began with the Peace Medal nickel, followed by the Keelboat nickel, in 2004. The Ocean in View nickel, a fourth design, will be released later in 2005. A law passed by Congress and approved by President Bush in April 2003, authorized the redesign of the Nation’s 5-cent coin for the first time since 1938 to commemorate the bicentennials of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition. Starting February 28, 2005, Americans may order bags and rolls of American Bison nickels online at www.usmint.gov.
F or photos of the 2005 American Bison nickel, go to: Westward Journey Nickel Series ~ 2005 First Design: “American Bison” Nickel.