One Piece At A Time

Price: $25,000.00

Availability: in stock,

The definition of work of art is something that is considered to have aesthetic value, something that is beautiful, intriguing, interesting, creative or extremely well done.

 

In 2015 our story begins with a group of coin carvers from around the world united to raise money to help pay medical bills for a ill artist suffering from Lyme disease .  From this project  "One Piece At A Time" was born! 

The unique jigsaw puzzle was created from an America the Beautiful 5 Ounce Silver bullion quarter dollar that was cut into 25 irregular pieces.

All in all, 21 individuals representing the best know hobo nickel carvers from around the world worked on the project for almost a year to create this unique piece of art.

In early Spring 2016 a very exciting auction was held and after 54 bids were made, the dust settled on March 13th the auction hammer fell and the lucky winner had paid the final price realized of $4,350.  Since that date the work has been bought and sold several times and its providence is as follows:

Michael Kittle of Michael Kittle Rare Coins, David Silver, Joe Palmieri of Beantown Coins, and Jonathan Lerner of Scarsdale Coin 

Jonathan Lerner believes that this one work of art needs to be seen and appreciated and not hidden away in a vault.   He continues to offer its display to both coin clubs and coin shows around the country.  With a insured monetary value of $25,000 Jonathan considers the work  priceless and it gives him great joy to all those who actually view the piece when it is displayed.  Truly this is one numismatic treasure that has transcended both time and culture. 

Don Berry who worked on the project said he believes the participating carvers did an “amazing’” job with their designs and keeping the project secret for nine months.

“We all have friends in this hobby, and we all share what we know and try to be there for each other when we can,” Berry said in a Facebook post at the Original Hobo Nickel Society group. “Personally I say if I can, I will. When my daughter was born last May, I said I can so I will. I purchased the 5-ounce silver coin, sent it off to be cut into a puzzle, and recruited 21 carvers to carve whatever they wanted. I had no idea how this would turn out, and heck I could only pray that all the pieces would make it around the country and world and home safely.

“And as you all saw, they made it back, one piece at a time.”

Several folks worked behind the scenes to make this happen,  Don Berry enlisted the help of Michael Kittle in Agora Hills, CA owner of Michael Kittle Rare Coins who contacted Jeremy Barrett a coin cutter who actually was the person who by hand cut the coin into a jigsaw puzzle consisting of the 25 separate pieces.

Some of the 21 carvers did more than one piece, carving creative designs of their own choice on one or even both sides of the puzzle pieces that they were shipped.

“In most cases, they did not know what the other pieces would lookfont-family:arial;">The artists that participated in the project, with country or state of residence are: Pedro Villarrubia (Spain), Blanca De La Hoz (Spain), Joe Paonessa (Wisconsin), James Boudreau (Florida), Sean Bennington (Washington), John Schipp (Indiana), Mike Lyness (Illinois), Ben Proctor (Iowa), Will Clark (Texas), Matthew Hagermann (Pennsylvania), Simone Cervellati (Italy), Jay DeBoer (Washington), Robbie Morris (Virginia), Shane Hunter (Ohio), Barb Hunter (Ohio), Adam Leech (Colorado), Lou Acker (California), Don Berry (California), David Raymond (Alabama), Paolo Curcio (Spain), Jared Eason (Mississippi), Chris DeFlorentis (Tennessee), and Harry Caldwell IV (Washington).