Introducing Stout Snout

By Chris Dempsey LM64

I was lucky enough to acquire this and five other coins at a small show in Cheektowaga, New York from a dealer who purchased them all the way back in 1978. This coin, carved on a 1919 host coin, was arguably the coolest coin I purchased at the show, so I went looking for the matches for it almost immediately after I purchased it. After about thirty minutes of searching, I found two more examples.

The second example I found appeared in the 2010 OHNS auction, lot 52, and sold for $495. I located the third example, carved on a 1925-S host coin, in the "Recent Sales" section of the OHNS website from April 2002 and sold for $178.16. I chose the name "Stout Snout," after exploring names like Bubble Beak and Fat Nose.

The carving characteristics for "Stout Snout" are listed as follows:

1. Appearance of date and liberty are arbitrary.
2. High domed derby with a curved brim and simple straight hat band.
3. Straight shirt collar with a fountain pen shaped coat lapel.
4. Simple hollowed out narrow ear varies in size from medium to large.
5. Heavily altered profile with enlarged nose and accented mouth.
6. Hair, beard, and eyebrow are punched with a pointed punch or knife tip.
7. Multiple wrinkles added behind a tiny punched eye.
8. Sometimes shaded around date.
9. Smoothly dressed field.
10. Coins appear on a variety of different dates and mint marks.