Introducing Matt Ticulous

By Ralph Winter LM37, Marc Banks, RM538 and Don Wolfe, RM981

Ralph Winter purchased the first nickel pictured below on eBay in May of 2008. It's on an XF full horn nickel. He had to pay almost $370 from a Connecticut seller to acquire this example. The second carving pictured belongs to Marc Banks. It's on an XF-AU 1913 Type 1. Marc picked up his coin for $50 at a local coin show in Massachusetts in September of 2012. The third coin shown belongs to Don Wolfe and is on a 1913 Type 2 nickel. Marc and Ralph posted their nickels in the Three's A Match section of the spring 2013 issue of BoTales where Don Wolfe saw them and realized he owned a match. Don believes he won it in an eBay auction, but isn't sure when or how much he paid. The 4th coin was recently acquired by Chris Dempsey. This specimen has a different hat, but the beard, ear and collar are all done in same meticulous manner. As we were reviewing the write-up and carver characteristics for "Matt Ticulous," Steve Alpert came up with yet a fifth example. Steve's example is shown on the bottom right and is carved on a 1913 Type 1 and was purchased for $205 in 2001 from Steve Tanenbaum.

We decided on the name "Matt Ticulous" because the carver displays careful, meticulous attention to detail in depicting well groomed men wearing high quality derby or boater hats.

The carving characteristics for "Matt Ticulous" are listed as follows:

Very neat hair, eyebrow, mustache and beard.
Nicely shaped ear with inner outline for detail.
Noses altered on all but 2nd from left.
Nicely textured derby or boater style hat.
In derby varieties, simple hatband and brim with pointed ends. Boater style does not have pointed ends.
Punched eye.
Plain collar formed by two lines expanding toward front.
All examples carved on 1913 Type 1 or Type 2 Indian head nickels.
Nicely dressed fields behind head and neck.
Date and at least partial "LIBERTY" remain on all examples.

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The following Ape-like Irishman was originally identified and nicknamed by Chris Dempsey and Stephen Alpert as a new carver named "Hobosapien." It was later determined by Chris, Stephen, Marc Banks, and Art DelFavero that carvings by "Hobosapien" were actually carved by already existing carver "Matt-Ticulous," and as such, "Hobosapien" was removed as a standalone carver. The following photos are additional carvings by "Matt-Ticulous."