I don't know anything about nickle carving, but do spot a beret when there's one in sight! Below the text of Vern Walraven on Sonny Carpenter's carvings:
"Like virtually all new nickel carvers he either started out on "no date"/"no horn" buffalo nickels or he decided to blow the date away. He also did the same thing to the LIBERTY legend. I don't hold this against beginning nickel carvers because everybody has to start somewhere. Occasionally the subject being carved simply doesn't leave room for the LIBERTY but generally most of us collectors prefer the final carving to look as much like a "real nickel" as possible.
Sonny apparently did one good thing right from the "get-go"... probably from having observed Ron carving nickels. He signed (hallmarked), dated and numbered his carvings! He also signed the coin holder in most cases which is a great addition to the carving in my eyes.
The small "Sun-E" hallmark was both a surprise and a pleasure to discover on these TTcarvings. You need to turn the hallmark on its side to see the "Sun-E". Additionally, I found this to be a really clever hallmark... "Sun-E"<>"Sonny"!"
No comments:
Post a Comment