I recently received these from a friend and I would like to know the originality of the engraving. Are any of the engravements modern? What are the values of these nickels? In the 5th picture I assigned numbers to each nickel that you can refer to them easier. Nickel #2 is a 1913 D Variety 1 (Raised Ground). Nickel #4 is a 1923 P. The rest of the nickels have visible dates. Thanks so much
I'm not even a big fan of fantasy pieces, but I like these. The upper left corner is neat, and the picture in the middle. I have about 300 buffalos right now that are dateless.
Hobo nickels are like art. The value is really based on how much someone would pay for that art. I am not so sure it matters if the engraving was done recently or 70 years ago. Unless it was done by a person famous, and sought after. I have seen modern hobo nickels sell for up to $500. Because I am not a collector of hobos, I cannot put a value on them or even tell you if the engravings are quality. Sorry.
Your Hobo Nickels appear to be modern creations. The OHNS (Original Hobo Nickel Society) uses five quality designations for Hobo Nickels: Superior, Above Average, Average, Below Average, Crude. I would say your Hobo Nickels would fall in the "Crude" quality designation. OHNS defines 'Crude' as: "A poorly-made hobo nickel. Usually made by someone with very little or no artistic talent, who probably wanted to get into the action of creating hobo nickels upon seeing how well the better makers were doing. Crude quality hobo nickels often consist of just punches or scratches that outline a hat and form a beard. A single punch (forming a dot or dash) may be used repeatedly to create the design. Probably a nail or screwdriver, and a hammer, were the tools used. Other pieces may have rough scratches or chisel marks, or poor attempts at carving. The features are roughly formed, and usually there was no attempt to remove the feathers and hair braid, or dress the field. Alterations such as adding an ear or changing the profile generally were not attempted, as they require artistic talent beyond the limited abilities of the makers of crude hobo nickels." As far as value your Hobo Nickels are worth whatever someone would pay for them. Personally I wouldn't pay more than a very few dollars for them. Compare your Hobo Nickels to a couple of mine below.
Some hobo nickels go for hundreds of dollars. Some go for only a few dollars. I think they're all pretty cool though. Here's an ebay listing of hobo nickels, auctions sorted by number of bids (descending) http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_Auction=1&_trkparms=65%253A1%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1&rt=nc&_nkw=hobo+nickel&_dmpt=Coins_US_Individual&_sticky=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_sop=5&_sc=1
