1847 $5 gold liberty possible trench art Tooled sideburns & Chin whiskers Hobo for Sale

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1847 $5 gold liberty possible trench art Tooled sideburns & Chin whiskers Hobo For Sale

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1847 $5 gold liberty possible trench art Tooled sideburns & Chin whiskers Hobo:
$999.99

Up for sale, an 1847 $5 gold liberty that has been tooled to make Lady Liberty more masculine.
I have been told by a handful of military collectors and experts that they think this is a form of trench art, or even possibly a type of Hobo piece like the Hobo Nickel.
Looking closely at the tooling marks and the overall wear of the coin, it certainly looks like it was tooled in that time period. Its the same kind of tooling that I have seen on many different Hobo nickels from the early 20th century.
One person suggested that a soldier could have engraved this piece to make it look like their commanding officer, adding the sideburns and whiskers to Lady Liberty to chide the apparent effeminate officer. I am not sure about that myself. It's hard to imagine a soldier having a $5 gold piece at the time, since they were paid so little, but I suppose it could have been a sort of good luck heirloom passed to him.
At any rate, this came in the door, and I thought it was interesting enough to put up here on . Feel free to email questions to us.