Numismatic bassorilievo

January 2, 2014 9:31 AM

Spanish artist mrthe creates hobo nickles, bas relief sculptures carved into coins that take advantage of the multiple layers of metals from cladding. See more of them here, and read up on the history of hobo nickels. (via, previously)
posted by slogger (6 comments total)

Also, tangentially.
posted by slogger at 9:37 AM on January 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

These are so cool! I'm totally in love with dapper little Mr. Washington.
posted by phunniemee at 9:42 AM on January 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Pretty cool work. Though, it does pain me to see the Indian head nickles used-up that way.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:47 AM on January 2, 2014

Very cool, I never knew this was a Thing, apparently for a long time. I especially like how mrthe keeps "In God We Trust" on most of them, which often adds a little irony.

Thorzdad, I'm sure there will be many millions of Indian head nickels surviving this desecration.
posted by beagle at 10:37 AM on January 2, 2014

it does pain me to see the Indian head nickles used-up that way

My impression is mrthe's coins aren't Indian Head nickels. You can see the dates and denominations on a number of them, as well as different layers of metal.
posted by Hoopo at 10:37 AM on January 2, 2014

I saw a program once where they discussed how some of the German POWs in the U.S. during WWII made miniature teapots from silver dimes.

This approximates what I saw, though it looks like it was made much earlier.
posted by bricksNmortar at 11:46 AM on January 2, 2014