So when I donated the two Hobo Nickels to the Smithsonian, I was in a Hobo Nickel class offered by the ANA in Colorado Springs in 2013. The Smithsonian had some money in their budget so they sent some employees to some classes at the ANA. One of the curators happened to be in the Hobo Nickel class that I was in. I had some of my coins with me and showed them. The curator asked if I had ever considered donating any to the Smithsonian. She told me that they would probably never be on display but would be in the archives, which I thought was pretty cool so I gave her the above two coins. Later on in November of 2015 I got word that the coins would be going on permanent display.
I was probably only about a year into my coin carving endeavor when I took the first class. Looking back I can say the skull coin is probably one of the worst skull carvings in the history of coin carving. It's not even complete, I didn't finish the neck on this one for some reason. Even the "Hobo Hitchhiker" is incomplete. If you look at the hitchhiker coin, you'll see the antique car and the hobo's thumb requesting a ride and to the right of the thumb is a 'mile marker'. At the time I only had rotary tools and hadn't acquired my air graver yet so I didn't have the proper tools to add the mile marker text to the coin. So, there's a little background on the two Smithsonian coins.
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