Oddball Set thread draft
lordmarcovan
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"The Helmsman"
Modern (ca. 2016) "hobo" carving on 1900 Barber dime by artist David HJ He
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Obverse: 19th century sea captain gazing left, with windswept hair, at ship's helm, artist's signature "David He" below, original outer legends and date of host coin left intact. Reverse: original Barber wreath design, unaltered, some old marks. Purchased from the artist, username "david-art" (eBay), 7/18/2016. Artist is Member RM1463 of the Original Hobo Nickel Society. This piece his edition #16116.
You've got to love salty old sea dog character with his craggy countenance, fiercely determined expression, and impressive eyebrows, as he sails into the teeth of a gale. I'm not sure why he has a sheriff's star on his coat, but that's just a neat little extra detail. He reminds me of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick.
I was an underbidder on David He's "Fisherman", done on a 1908 Barber quarter, which sold for $202.55 on 7/17/2016. But that disappointment was soothed when I won this piece on a Barber dime for less than 1/3 the price. I think the carving on this one is almost as nice as the "Fisherman" piece. This is certainly a talented modern artist. This also was the first modern hobo carving I managed to win at auction; I was initially surprised to learn that competition for them is stronger than for the 19th century love tokens, so prices tend to run a bit higher.
Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set
Modern (ca. 2016) "hobo" carving on 1900 Barber dime by artist David HJ He
Larger obverse picture #1
Larger obverse picture #2
Larger reverse picture
Obverse: 19th century sea captain gazing left, with windswept hair, at ship's helm, artist's signature "David He" below, original outer legends and date of host coin left intact. Reverse: original Barber wreath design, unaltered, some old marks. Purchased from the artist, username "david-art" (eBay), 7/18/2016. Artist is Member RM1463 of the Original Hobo Nickel Society. This piece his edition #16116.
You've got to love salty old sea dog character with his craggy countenance, fiercely determined expression, and impressive eyebrows, as he sails into the teeth of a gale. I'm not sure why he has a sheriff's star on his coat, but that's just a neat little extra detail. He reminds me of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick.
I was an underbidder on David He's "Fisherman", done on a 1908 Barber quarter, which sold for $202.55 on 7/17/2016. But that disappointment was soothed when I won this piece on a Barber dime for less than 1/3 the price. I think the carving on this one is almost as nice as the "Fisherman" piece. This is certainly a talented modern artist. This also was the first modern hobo carving I managed to win at auction; I was initially surprised to learn that competition for them is stronger than for the 19th century love tokens, so prices tend to run a bit higher.
Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set
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WW1 love token on 1916 French franc, from a fallen Canadian soldier to his mother
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Obverse: original French "Sower" design, unaltered. Reverse: "1 Franc" and olive branch planed off, date and legends intact, re-engraved "Bertha / V. Shaver / Montreal / Canada" in script.
World War I "trench art" pieces and love tokens are commonly found on the French 1- and 2-franc "Sower" coins of the period. This one is visually unremarkable, though the engraved script was well done. At first glance, it's not even as interesting as the "dog tag" or "ID badge" pieces that typically bear a soldier's name, service number, and/or unit.
However, I decided to research it because of the presence of a full name (first, last, and middle initial), to see if I could pin down more information about the onetime owner of this piece. It turned out I found very little about Bertha V. Shaver of Montreal, Canada, who was obviously the recipient of the love token, but through her name, I was able to determine with a reasonable amount of certainty that the engraving was commissioned by her son, Harold Clinton Shaver, who was serving with the Canadian Army Medical Service in France during the Great War.
Since the date was left intact on the host coin, we know it was engraved no earlier than 1916. Of course the war ended in November of 1918, but the life of Private Harold Shaver was tragically cut short before that, on May 20, 1918, from wounds suffered the day before in a German air raid on the hospital he was probably working in. Thus we can pretty definitively date the engraving on the coin to sometime between October of 1917, when Harold Shaver enlisted, and May 19, 1918, when he was mortally wounded.
As a further compelling detail to this poignant tale, I discovered a newspaper photograph of Harold Clinton Shaver on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial website. So this is now the second time I've been able to "put a face to the coin", and it was a young and handsome face at that.
May Harold and Bertha Shaver rest in peace, and I hope the joy of their eventual reunion in heaven eclipsed the suffering they experienced during their earthly existence.
Data source: Canadian Virtual War Memorial
(Note that there are some minor discrepancies in the sources. His death date was given as May 19th below, though that was the date of his wounding. He died on May 20th.)
Data source: Canadian Great War Project
Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set
Jasper Dilday, the last time I "put a face to the coin"