Introducing Shades


By Don Wolfe RM981

I acquired the first two of the nickels pictured below over the last few years, but I do not have record of the purchases. At least one of the nickels was bought on eBay. I matched the nickels up and submitted them for "Three's a Match" and they appeared in the fall 2016 issue of BoTales. Recently, Art DelFavero found a third nickel in the OHNS archives that matched. To me the most common feature that caught my eye was the hat. The lines used on the hat for shading were very similar on all three so I took the name from that. I call this carver "Shades."

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The carving characteristics for "Shades" are as follows:

  1. Lines for shading that are basically placed at the front, rear, and top portions of the dome.
  2. Round domed hat with thin curved brim that comes to a point at each end and runs from rim to rim. Brim cuts through LIBERTY.
  3. On two of the nickels there is a narrow hat band with a simple bow.
  4. Ear is carved and the interior shows some features while the ear touches or is just slightly under the hat.
  5. Hair behind the ear is created by what appears to be the point of a chisel and is deeply cut. There is some hair just in front of the ear just under hat brim.
  6. Beard is punched lightly with the same point of the chisel to make dots.
  7. The eye is accented.
  8. Nostril on two nickels is enlarged.
  9. Coat collar has deep lines with a notch on the lower line. There is a thinner line just above the collar.
  10. LIBERTY and date is left on each nickel and are on earlier to mid date coins.