Roman Booteen is a master of crafting hobo nickels. He carves intricate designs featuring icons from pop culture, literature, history and film onto American nickels and silver dollars. Based in Yekaterinburg, the fourth largest city in Russia, Booteen’s incredible one-off coins sell for hundreds to thousands of dollars each. In 2017, his “1921 Morgan Dollar Hobo Nickel” was sold for a staggering $10,101. Nice.

Modifying coins by carving a bas-relief onto their surfaces has been around since the middle of the eighteenth-century. Such decorated coins were given as gifts and love tokens or worn as jewelry on bracelets or necklaces. In America, this kind of coin carving grew in popularity with the introduction of the Buffalo nickel in 1913, as the nickel had a larger, more malleable surface which was especially suitable for carving minute detail. These modified coins were called “Hobo nickels” as they were mainly crafted by itinerants as a way to make money or exchange their handicraft for food.

Booteen’s work has evolved from simple bas relief to one coin featuring a “gold bug” which can open its wings (inspired by the story by Poe) and another that has a finger trap with teeth which can literally chomp thru wood. Little is known about Booteen. He keeps a low-profile which has led to him being described as a “man of mystery.” However, he shares his work via Instagram and Facebook and his hobo nickels sell on eBay. He also does a wild selection of engravings for Zippo lighters (see below) and Hotco.co will be releasing a limited replica edition of his “The Trap With the Golden Bait” this year.