Hobo Nickel

[street]

II never heard of this before till the other day. These coins are refabricated from real coins. The Buffalo Head coin supposable is used the most to restructure the picture on these coins. I have not seen one, but I will say they have some very interesting creation on these coins.
It is against the law to do this though.

 

[erkevin]

“Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who ‘fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.’ This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.”

 

[street]

“Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who ‘fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.’ This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.”

Yep, not legal.

 

[sengsational]

A worn buffalo nickel isn't worth much, but one that's become a work of art is worth much more. I'd say it's "up cycling" and, legal or not, it a societal net plus.

Similarly, my wife gets jewelry from Etsy made from old coins with holes drilled in them. Again, either in grandpa's old smelly closet or on my bride's wrist ... a net positive.

Remember those pennies in the back of the kids' magazines "Lincoln smoking a pipe!!"

ETA: My avatar here is just such a "defacement"

 

[street]

segsational, I see your view and I see way worse things happening that are illegal, and people look the other way.

Remember the penny on the railroad tracks. That was a big deal for kids in my generation. Half the kids in the US should be serving time.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

segsational, I see your view and I see way worse things happening that are illegal, and people look the other way.

Remember the penny on the railroad tracks. That was a big deal for kids in my generation. Half the kids in the US should be serving time.

I think you missed the emphasis in erkevin's comment, "there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.” It's saying that if you're not trying to defraud someone by, say, drilling a hole in a coin and putting a fishing line through it to use in a vending machine, they're saying it's legal. Otherwise, arcades and amusement parks would never have those machines that press pennies into designs.

 

[Ronstar]

segsational, I see your view and I see way worse things happening that are illegal, and people look the other way.

Remember the penny on the railroad tracks. That was a big deal for kids in my generation. Half the kids in the US should be serving time.

Yep everyone I knew growing up would put pennies on rr tracks to see what would happen. And what about these kiosks that smash pennies into little momentos. I have one from the National Air and Space Museum.

 

[Rianne]

My mom saved unusual coins. I have many in our lock box and have no idea what they're worth. They are interesting like OPs photo. Probably refabricated, but I keep them as mementos.

 

[street]

Yep everyone I knew growing up would put pennies on rr tracks to see what would happen. And what about these kiosks that smash pennies into little momentos. I have one from the National Air and Space Museum.

Yep, I didn't waste to many pennies on the tracks as a kid, they were worth way too much to me.

 

[Ronstar]

Yep, I didn't waste to many pennies on the tracks as a kid, they were worth way too much to me.

We would usually do it if we found a penny on the ground. That way it didn't feel like we were wasting our own money. weird.

Pennies were valuable. All we needed was 5 pennies to get an extra carton of milk at school lunch.

 

[street]

We would usually do it if we found a penny on the ground. That way it didn't feel like we were wasting our own money. weird.

Pennies were valuable. All we needed was 5 pennies to get an extra carton of milk at school lunch.

Isn't that so true for just 1¢. I remember the feeling of forfeiting one penny for a flat piece of copper wasn't easy. It was those genes we all got from our heritage.

Thanks for the memories Ronstar.

 

[misanman]

Guy I knew collected these. As I recall, he said most were carved by "hobos" during the depression. Our friend would give presentations to local clubs and show his collection. He died of breast cancer a year or so ago but I think his wife has kept the coins.

 

[Surewhitey]

segsational, I see your view and I see way worse things happening that are illegal, and people look the other way.

Remember the penny on the railroad tracks. That was a big deal for kids in my generation. Half the kids in the US should be serving time.

Guilty... And pop worked for the Cotton Belt investigator of derailments. Irony.

 

[Texas Proud]

“Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who ‘fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.’ This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.”

So all those machines that will flatten and put on some local picture on a penny is breaking the law?

Yep, lets get them all to jail!!!

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

So all those machines that will flatten and put on some local picture on a penny is breaking the law?

Yep, lets get them all to jail!!!

No. Those machines do NOT "fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is."

 

[Koolau]

The single biggest "issue" that the "defacing" laws were designed to curtail was the practice of slicing tiny pieces of gold (or maybe even silver) from coins. "Ridges" were added to show if this had been done. "Sandwich" coins are virtually without value for their metal so the issue is virtually moot.

 

[jim584672]

The metal value of a nickel is more than 5 cents, so how do I get 10,000 nickels? I would never melt them down.

 

[sengsational]

Half the kids in the US should be serving time.

I hope the statute of limitations kicked in!

A steam locomotive went by our house on the way to the Tonka Toy factory (there was one place they did the steel stampings and assembly in those days). My parents let me cross the highway if I "looked both ways" (I was 5 years old). We used to stand right next to the tracks and the engineer waved at us. I wonder if he knew about the pennies.

It wasn't a 100% reliable process; it must have been that vibration caused the penny to fall off because sometimes we would search and finally find our unsquished penny. And as little kids, you didn't know the schedule, and we obviously weren't on the tracks if we heard it coming, so we spent many days waiting, only to go home, pennies intact.

 

[Koolau]

I hope the statute of limitations kicked in!

I've seen the gist of this site's take on "defacing" in more than one place, so assume it is correct. The "issue" is doing anything which is "fraudulent." If you smash a penny on the railroad, you won't be passing it off as anything other than a smashed penny, so it's not fraudulent. (See other examples in the article.)

Isn't it illegal to deface, alter or mutilate U.S. currency?

We're asked this question almost every day, and it is a very reasonable concern. And for what we do - make jewelry out of coins - the answer is simply no, it is not illegal. Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who fraudulently alters...

silverstatefoundry.com

 

[youbet]

Pennies were valuable. All we needed was 5 pennies to get an extra carton of milk at school lunch.

Wow, that was expensive milk! At the Chicago Public Schools in the 50's, white milk was 2 cents and chocolate was 3 cents. And, no cartons for us, it came in bottles with cardboard seals.

 

[CincyDave]

Wow, that was expensive milk! At the Chicago Public Schools in the 50's, white milk was 2 cents and chocolate was 3 cents. And, no cartons for us, it came in bottles with cardboard seals.

2 cents for me too in elementary school. Can't speak to the price of chocolate milk as I never got it. Guess I hadn't found the Blow that Dough thread yet.

 

[Koolau]

2 cents for me too in elementary school. Can't speak to the price of chocolate milk as I never got it. Guess I hadn't found the Blow that Dough thread yet.

Yes, 2 cents and I lived through the switch-over from glass bottles to cartons in the mid 50s IIRC.