Grand Collection of Gallery Mint Hobo and Show Tokens

[edix2001]

Dr. Lawrence J. Lee has recently gone online with a sale of eclectic material produced by the Gallery Mint Museum (GMM) that are available on his website:

http://www.striker-mfg.com/

 

The newest categories are Hobo Tokens and Show Tokens.

 

Hobo Tokens were issued in pairs as annual releases beginning in 1996. From 1996 to 2000 the designs were overstruck on Jefferson nickels. Beginning in 2001, the regular issues of these were struck in coin silver. During each year a new design was created each for an obverse portrait, based on the tradition of carving on the Indian Head designs, and a reverse design, which followed the design of the Buffalo side. View the sale list here:

http://www.striker-mfg.com/hobo.html

 

Dr. Lee is offering a wonderful variety of these designs for sale, including some previously unreleased issues. Images of the GMM Hobo Tokens that match the online descriptions can be viewed on The Original Hobo Nickel website:

http://www.hobonickels.org/stm-arch.htm

 

The sale of Show Tokens is even more diversified. Many of these are cent-sized pewter pieces struck on the GMM mobile mint at coin shows and events around the country. Other pieces run the gamut from large-cent-sized copper pieces commemorating specific coin club anniversaries, to hand hammered silver Greek-style designs for the ANA Summer Seminar, to Ultra-High Relief "push-out" designs based on Indian Head nickels and Mercury dimes, struck in a variety of metals. Many of the offerings are extremely low mintage or generally hard to find anywhere. And these were not offered directly to regular GMM customers at the time through the newsletter, solely being minted on site in local areas, or distributed to specific organizations and events. The webpage for the items is available here:

http://www.striker-mfg.com/showtokens.html

 

I urge those interested to view the sales asap. The prices, in my studied opinion, are bargain level to significantly underpriced, and on top of that, in many cases only a single example is being offered, so these will move quickly. I recommend shopping early for the winter holidays and purchase by the handful, because everyone in the family will adore these remarkable and unique designs, coin collectors or not, and you can save the best ones for yourself!