Thursday, November 13, 2008

Dick Tracy as Legal Tender...


Since my camera is now almost officially Ka-put, I have something to show you that is not in my possession: 
a coin.   
It was a bit out of my price range but is very cool and unusual, nonetheless.
These are called hobo nickels.  It seems during the depression, many artists found themselves without a canvas on which to express themselves so they took to carving on what little money they had to create (sometimes) intricate masterpieces.  This is not one of the elaborate ones by any means.  It recently sold on ebay and has shown up here for the express reason that the artist behind this was obviously influenced by Chester Gould's then-young Dick Tracy strip.
Just look at that nose!
I realize this is dated 1930 and Tracy wasn't out yet.  The coin was just 'Tracy-ized" sometime in the 30's after Tracy had appeared.
This is a one-of-a-kind piece of art and I wish I'd have had enough coin to purchase it myself.

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