Question: Coin Carving

Nathan Ott

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2008
Messages
41
Location
Bend, Oregon
I've been looking at some of the amazing coin carvings that have been popping up on the cafe in the last little and I'd like to try my hand at it.

I know that the Buffalo Nickel is used a lot, but are there other coins that take well to being carved? And what should I look for in coin I'm going to carve?
 

gtsport

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2007
Messages
305
Location
Racine, wisconsin
Nathan, Pretty much any coin can be carved, Buffalo nickels are just traditional. Silver dollars are probably next in popularity, then everything else. British pennys have been done in the past, as well as French 10 centimes of Nappy III, but pretty much you can carve whatever you have.

Joe Paonessa
 

Tim Wells

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
1,331
Location
Dallas, Georgia
Any will do but some lend themselves better to this because of the amount of metal in the original head on the coin. I'd start with something cheap and you can pick up buffalo nickels on ebay cheap as long as they are worn.

You don't care about that on practice pieces but on one you want to do well on and sell, the date needs to be as crisp as possible as well as the horns and other high wear details on the buffalo. Those coins will cost a bit more but not too bad and those details are what collectors look for.
 

monk

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Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
10,857
Location
washington, pa
the new us coins are total junk. as soon as you get to any kind of depth you run into copper. no good, unless you want that for contrast. the new nickels, well just to look at them makes you want to avoid them ! i suggest you take a look at steve ellsworths' tutorial on doing hobo nickels. it gives a ton of info on how to get started in this very fascinating type of engraving. there's much info in our tips section on this also.
i can answer some of your questions by phone if you like. i think the email way takes up a lot of time. you can call me 724-328-4951 till1 am eastern daily ask for monk
good luck
 

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