600 Hobo Nickels, Bo and Bert Rarities Head to Auction in Landmark Kagin Sale
A nickel once bought a cup of coffee, a newspaper, or part of a meal. In the hands of an itinerant artist, however, five cents could become something entirely different.
A face could grow a beard. A derby could replace a feather. The American bison could become a donkey, elephant, turtle, boxcar, or wandering traveler.
Those miniature sculptures became known as hobo nickels. Today, the best examples rank among the most distinctive forms of American numismatic folk art.
On September 28, 2026, collectors will get a rare opportunity to pursue them on an extraordinary scale.
Kagin’s Auctions will begin dispersing the Candace D. Kagin Collection of Hobo Nickels, a collection of more than 600 pieces. Kagin’s bills it as the largest and finest collection of hobo nickels ever assembled and offered for sale. The collection includes more than 100 carvings attributed to legendary artists George Washington “Bo” Hughes and Bertram “Bert” Wiegand. It also includes works by unidentified classic carvers, modern artists, privately held pieces, and related material.
For collectors of hobo nickels, the sale represents far more than another auction. It marks the dispersal of a collection built across more than two decades around one of the most personal forms of American coin art.
One Carved Nickel Started the Journey
According to Kagin’s current auction catalog, Candace Kagin discovered hobo nickels at the 2005 Florida United Numismatists convention. It marked her first visit to a major coin convention.
There, she overheard a dealer explaining that someone had hand-carved a Buffalo nickel. The idea immediately caught her attention.
Soon, curiosity turned into collecting.
At an annual Original Hobo Nickel Society (OHNS) auction, Kagin purchased a carving of a woman known as “Monique.” Kagin’s states that the purchase established a world-record price at the time. Monique holds special significance in hobo nickel history because Bo Hughes portrayed her in several carvings. Contemporary auction records identify her as a woman from Bo’s life who became one of his recurring subjects.
That early purchase opened the door to something much larger.
The $170,000 Purchase That Transformed the Collection
Kagin made a major leap in May 2012.
During the American Numismatic Association National Money Show in Denver, she paid $170,000 for a 218-piece collection assembled by Larry Frost of Park City, Utah. Former ANA President H. Robert Campbell of All About Coins in Salt Lake City brokered the private transaction.
The Frost Collection already ranked among the major holdings in the field.
Coin World reported that nearly one-third of its pieces came from Bert Wiegand and his protégé Bo Hughes. The group included more than 60 Bo carvings and four Bert carvings. It also contained works attributed to classic carvers known by collector nicknames such as “Peanut Ear,” “Telephone Ear,” and “Scruffy Beard.”
The collection went well beyond traditional bearded portraits. It included cameo carvings, two-sided designs, and pictorial subjects showing turtles, dogs, horses, donkeys, and elephants.
Perhaps even more intriguing, the acquisition included a group of period carving and punch tools that may have belonged to Bo or Bert.
Kagin continued adding pieces afterward. Eventually, her collection grew beyond 600 items.
What Exactly Is a Hobo Nickel?
The hobo nickel did not start with the Great Depression.
Americans had altered coins long before the Buffalo nickel appeared. During the 19th century, for example, engravers created love tokens by smoothing coin surfaces and adding initials, messages, and decorative designs.
However, James Earle Fraser’s Buffalo nickel changed the possibilities when the U.S. Mint introduced it in 1913. The Mint continued the design through 1938.
Fraser gave artists an unusually accommodating canvas.
His Native American portrait filled much of the obverse. It also offered a strong profile, large facial features, and relatively high relief. Therefore, a carver could transform the portrait dramatically while retaining parts of the original design.
The reverse provided another opportunity. Artists could reshape Fraser’s bison into animals, people, or elaborate scenes.
The Original Hobo Nickel Society notes that early artists often worked with simple tools. They used awls, nails, knives, screwdrivers, small hammers, punches, and pieces of scrap metal. Instead of merely scratching a picture onto the surface, skilled carvers removed, moved, punched, and modeled metal to create a miniature bas-relief sculpture.
That distinction matters.
A great hobo nickel does not simply carry an engraving. The original coin becomes raw material for a new work of art.
From Railroad Camps to American Folk Art
The Buffalo nickel entered circulation just before World War I. Then it traveled through the Roaring ’20s and into the Great Depression.
During the Depression, millions of Americans lost jobs. Many men traveled by rail in search of work. According to the American Numismatic Association, some spent their idle hours carving Buffalo nickels.
The coins made practical canvases. They cost only five cents. They fit in a pocket. More importantly, they offered enough surface and relief for an imaginative carver to create something recognizable.
Some carvers reportedly exchanged their work for meals or lodging. Others created pieces for entertainment, trade, or sale. Still others apparently carved simply because they possessed the skill.
Collectors should also resist one popular oversimplification. Not every old carved Buffalo nickel necessarily came from a railroad hobo. Many artists remain unidentified. Moreover, modern artists continue the tradition today.
The term hobo nickel now describes the broader art form as well as its historical roots.
The Smithsonian Institution classifies carved Buffalo nickels as modified coins and notes that collectors associate them with hobo art because nickels offered an inexpensive, portable, and workable medium.
Bo and Bert: Two Names That Define the Field
Most early hobo nickel carvers disappeared into anonymity. Two names, however, tower above the field.
Bertram “Bert” Wiegand began carving nickels during the early years of the Buffalo nickel series. He later taught George Washington “Bo” Hughes, who started carving in the late 1910s.
Bo eventually produced a much larger body of work. He continued carving for decades. His subjects ranged from familiar bearded men to portraits, self-portraits, animals, and more elaborate compositions.
The Original Hobo Nickel Society considers Bo one of the best-known early carvers. His work also provides a remarkable personal record because he sometimes carved people from his own life.
That brings the story back to Monique.
Rather than an anonymous face, Monique became a recurring character within Bo’s work. As a result, her appearances turn certain hobo nickels into pieces of biography as well as folk art.
The Kagin Collection contains significant representation from both masters.
Buffalo Nickel Specifications
Most classic hobo nickels use James Earle Fraser’s Buffalo nickel as their host coin.
- Denomination: Five Cents
- Years Issued: 1913-1938
- Designer: James Earle Fraser
- Composition: 75% copper, 25% nickel
- Weight: 5.00 grams
- Diameter: 21.21 mm
- Edge: Plain
- Obverse: Native American profile
- Reverse: American bison
- U.S. Mints: Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco
The U.S. Mint confirms that Fraser’s Buffalo nickel ran from 1913 through 1938. The standard five-cent planchet weighs 5 grams, measures 21.21 mm, and contains 75% copper and 25% nickel.
Three Auctions Will Disperse the Kagin Collection
Kagin’s plans to disperse the collection through three auctions.
The company announced approximately 200 lots for the opening sale on September 28, 2026. All sessions will take place live online rather than through a traditional floor auction.
The first offering illustrates the remarkable breadth of the collection. The catalog includes classic and modern carvings, Bo Hughes pieces, unidentified artists, two-sided carvings, related tokens, and other hobo material. Among the cataloged subjects are a Bo self-portrait, a reverse-carved “Hobo Mount Rushmore,” and another portrait of Monique.
In addition, 5% of the hammer price will go to the Original Hobo Nickel Society.
Kagin’s also plans a comprehensive reference work after the auction series concludes. The proposed book will include the collection’s auction lots along with roughly 40 Kagin Collection pieces that Stack’s Bowers Galleries sold in 2025. Kagin’s expects the project sometime in 2027.
That publication could give the collection a second life as a research resource long after the coins move into new cabinets.
Five Cents and a Piece of Someone’s Life
Traditional numismatics often celebrates preservation. Collectors prize original surfaces, sharp strikes, and coins that escaped damage.
Hobo nickels turn that idea upside down.
Their importance comes from alteration.
Someone deliberately cut into the coin. Someone removed Fraser’s original detail. Someone pushed, punched, and carved the metal until five cents became a face that existed nowhere else.
In most areas of numismatics, that would destroy value.
Here, it created the object collectors wanted.
That contradiction helps explain the enduring appeal of the hobo nickel. Every piece combines an official artifact of the United States Mint with an unofficial story created by an individual artist.
The Candace D. Kagin Collection brings hundreds of those stories together.
Now, after more than two decades of collecting, they will begin traveling again.
Only this time, they will leave by auction rather than by rail.
