Erie coin dealer Chris Dempsey made history this month by paying $24,200 for a nickel.

He said the purchase is worth every penny.

"It is not every day that you can buy something for less than $25,000 that is one of the most famous," he said. "I bought it for me."

Dempsey, 32, co-owner of coin merchant and jeweler Dempsey & Baxter, 6032 Peach St., paid the most money on record for what is known as an original hobo nickel.

He bought a 5-cent Indian head coin on which the artist, who was known to be a hobo, carved designs. The coin was minted in 1935 and was most likely altered in 1939.

Coin collectors prize hobo nickels -- Dempsey said thousands exist -- as small and special pieces of Americana. Dempsey and others said the nickels served as currency for hobos, who traded them for lodging and food as they hitched rides on the railroads during the Great Depression, looking for work.

"Each one is unique," said Paul Gilkes, who first reported on Dempsey's buy as senior staff writer at Coin World magazine, near Dayton, Ohio. "They are pieces of folk art."

He said many hobo nickels were likely passed down among generations as keepsakes.

"A lot of people might have them in their dresser drawers and don't know what they have," Gilkes said.

Dempsey bought the hobo nickel at the Original Hobo Nickel Society's 21st annual auction in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 12. The coin was the last original hobo nickel in the collection of Georgia resident Bill Fivaz, 79, a top authority on hobo nickels.

"I had it for 25 years or so and thought that it was time to let someone else enjoy it," Fivaz said.

Dempsey is the grandson of his store's late founder, Jack Baxter, and the son of Baxter's partner and son-in-law, Jack Dempsey, who owns the store with Chris Dempsey and other members of his family. Chris Dempsey has been collecting hobo nickels for four years, and he is the webmaster for the Original Hobo Nickel Society. He said he learned about six months ago that the 1935 coin would soon go up for sale.

"I was saving my nickels and dimes, so to speak," Dempsey said.

Collectors consider Dempsey's coin one of the best of the lot. It was created by hobo George Washington "Bo" Hughes, one of two known carvers who crafted the nickels. Hughes' teacher was hobo Bertram "Bert" Wiegand.

To read the complete article, see:Erie collector pays record $24K for coin(www.goerie.com/article/20130125/NEWS02/301249873/Erie-collector-pays-record
-$24K-for-coin)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JANUARY 20, 2013: Hobo Nickel Brings Record Price(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v16n03a12.html)