Introducing Roman Booteen’s

The Trap with the Golden Bait

Authorized Replica

Get ready to feast your eyes…and your fingers…on the most exciting bas-relief sculpture you’ve ever seen on a Hobo Nickel.

• Authorized, licensed reproduction of Roman Booteen’s original Trap Coin • Bezel, Jaws & Trap cast from 20 grams of 925 silver • Includes original Dos Pesos 1/20 Troy ounce gold coin

Originally created and sold in 2017 by

Roman Booteen

This 1921 Morgan Dollar Hobo Nickel sold at Auction for $10,101. Within days, Booteen experienced an influx of requests from excited collectors wanting a piece of modern art history. Sadly, it was a limited edition of one, but it became an overnight icon. Our stunning replica is unlike anything you’ve seen.

The obverse is a domed Morgan Dollar, featuring the iconic eagle. But it is the reverse that is the real star. It features a 1945 Gold Dos Peso core, surrounded by a spring-loaded finger trap. With the trap open, it becomes part of the border work, but try to steal the gold bait and it snaps shut. Never before has a Hobo Nickel existed with such unique sculpting and functionality.

Around the circumference, a matching inscription by Sir Walter Scott reads: AURUM MULTO MAGIS ANIMAS PERDIDIT QUAM FERRUM CORPORA CECIDIT. The meaning – “Gold has killed more souls than iron”. Booteen’s coin is inscribed in Latin, and we have translated it to Russian in this description to honor the coin’s original creator: ЗОЛОТО ПОГУБИЛО БОЛЬШЕ ДУШ, ЧЕМ ЖЕЛЕЗО ТЕЛ. Needless to say, this is one coin all investors are hungry to get their hands on. And this is one coin, hungry to get its trap on your fingers.

And in case you’re wondering, the finger trap is safe.

The Trap at a glance...

• Authorized reproduction of Roman Booteen’s original Trap Coin • One-of-a-kind working trap mechanism • Includes original Morgan Dollar • Includes original Dos Pesos 1/20 Troy ounce gold coin • Bezel, Jaws & Trap cast from 20 grams of 925 silver • Includes certificate of authenticity • Limited to only 999 replicas • Individually laser-etched with serial number • includes collector’s box • 1 year manufacturer’s warranty on moving parts

What's in the Box?

Can’t wait to see it in person? Check out the video from Backyard Bullion on YouTube and his review of Roman Booteen’s Trap with the Golden Bait authorized replica.

Important Updates

New Collector’s Box

15 September 2019 – All Trap Coins purchased after September 15th will receive the NEW Booteen box. The new box is considerably lighter and smaller making it easier for shipping and long term storage.

While we really loved the laser-etched wood box, many countries would not allow the import of it from Thailand. This is because Thailand bans the export of many types of wood. While the teak box was not banned, it made the process of exporting and importing much more complicated.

Getting the most from your Trap Coin

6 April 2019 – Your Trap Coin comes with a 1 year warranty, but with proper use, it will provide years of enjoyment. This video will show you how to get the most from your treasure.

There are a few keys to success:

1) The wreath surrounding the Dos Pesos coin is extremely delicate, and needs to be aligned properly for the trap to spring closed. If it’s bent down, even slightly, the peso cannot slide under it to pop the trap. Be sure that the wreath is not bent down.

2) The mechanism is set very tight from the factory, and you may need to set and pop the trap a few dozen times before it properly seats in and works nicely. Feel free to adjust it to your liking.

How it’s made……the Tale!

Masters of the Hobo Nickel art form are known to push the limits when designing their one-of-a-kind treasures. And just when we thought we’ve seen it all, we learned of Roman Booteen’s latest project, the Trap Coin with the Golden Bait.

Like countless other fans, we fell in love at first sight. We knew the coin would be offered for sale on eBay, and we were ready to bid. We had to have that coin.

Some of the greatest carved coins sell for thousands of dollars, so we weren’t surprised as the bidding heated up and reached towards the $5,000 USD mark. We set a max bid at $5,001, hopeful to win this unique heirloom. But in the final moments of the auction, the high bid soared past $5,4000, placing the coin out of reach for all but the most deep-pocketed collectors. We set a top bid of $10,100, and were equal parts crushed and relieved when the final bid beat us by $1, setting a record of $10,101 for the most expensive modern-day Hobo Nickel.

Fortunately, Booteen introduced us to the proud new owner and we were able to secure license for reproduction.

And that’s when the real challenge began...

Breaking down

The Components

This 1921 Morgan Dollar Hobo Nickel sold at Auction for $10,101. Within days, Booteen experienced an influx of requests from excited collectors wanting a piece of modern art history. Sadly, it was a limited edition of one, but it became an overnight icon. Our stunning replica is unlike anything you’ve seen.

The Bezel

While serving the purpose of holding the mechanism together,
Booteen interwove plenty of symbols and tiny hidden details in the design.

NEVER OUTSHINE THE MASTER

In the case of Roman Booteen, observing this rule is quite easy. What Booteen did in a few weeks took an international team of experts nearly 18 months to reproduce.

Roman helped us get started by providing an early trap mechanism prototype, as the original $10k Trap Coin wasn’t going to be dismantled. We sent the mechanism to engineers in Australia and Lichtenstein for evaluation. While the consensus was that replicaing the design was possible, it wouldn’t be easy on such a very small scale. Increasing the size of the model would be the only way to easily replicate the Trap Coin, but that was out of the question. First, we wanted to make the replica as close to the original model as possible, and that meant using Morgans and Dos Pesos. Second, so much of the intrigue of Booteen’s coin is how very tiny it is, and the painstaking microscopic precision required to piece it together..

BRINGING THE JAWS TO LIFE

12 months and 40 computer-aided designs, 3d prints and prototype casts later, we finally had a working trap. But the trap was nothing like the Booteen’s grizzly teeth. In fact, it was a dull mechanical knock-off, that lacked all signs of creativity.

That’s where our digital artist & Zbrush genius Ghim Ong took up the task. Once we knew we had a working set of jaws, Ghim carefully studied Roman’s original design, and modified the working trap 3d design, adding the life-like details found on the original. What Roman did in a few hours took weeks of design work to reproduce, and another several rounds of 3d prints and prototypes to test, tweak, and fit it all together.

DOMING THE DOLLAR

Once we had a designed & functioning trap, it was time to fit it all together.

The next challenge was to design a doming die and block that would accommodate the trap while not leaving extra space for shifting or misalignment. If the Morgan was domed too shallow, the device would stick out of the top. If it was domed too deep, we’d run the risk of the trap not fitting inside the bowl.

After a series of miscalculations, we settled on a dome radius and set to work on designing the tool that would render such a result. And while making a single coin could be done by hand on a simple doming block, we needed something that would hold up for nearly a thousand coins!

As luck would have it, we got the formula right the first time! The doming turned out great on our little hydraulic press, putting us one step closer to achieving the impossible.

Unfortunately, the corners of the trap brace were way outside the radius limits. Ghim made the correction, another prototype was printed and cast, and for the very first time, we put all the pieces together.

ALMOST HOME

With the new brace cast, we tracked down some Dos Pesos and got to work assembling the replica. With all the pieces of the puzzle fine-tuned, it only took a few hours from there to complete the first official prototype, bringing tears to the eyes of our exhausted team.

The final step was to seal the trap to the Morgan, which was the perfect task for our 30 watt fiber laser welder. With the precision to lay down a thin layer of silver exactly where it needs to go comes a lot of heat, and the tiny springs inside the trap are incredibly sensitive to high temperatures. So, to generate a minimum amount of heat, we could only laser weld a tiny 3mm section of the coin at a time – allowing the material to cool for 30 minutes between welds. Sealing a single trap coin alltogether requires more than 10 hours!

But with all said and done, the Roman Booteen’s Trap Coin with the Golden Bait – the officially licensed Silver Hobo Nickel replica – is a true modern art and engineering marvel. While our team was able to reproduce it – at a cost of more than $20,000 and 18 months of time – it makes one thing abundantly clear:

Roman Booteen is a genius.

First, think of the kind of imagination required to even dream something like this up! How many people look at a tiny coin and say “hey, that would make an amazing functioning trap with real jaws and solid gold bait”?

Second, with no point of reference to follow, Booteen created all of this from nothing….just an image in his mind and his steadfast determination to obtain the nearly impossible. Our team did it too – but we had Roman to copy. Roman had none of this, and pulled it off with ease.

Finally, have you seen what else he’s done SINCE THEN!? While we were busy trying to figure out how Booteen did it, he’s been busy making half a dozen epic creations…and we would be nuts to try and replicate them!

Your Chance to Own…

A Piece of History

It’s unknown if the lucky buyer who snagged Roman Booteen’s record-setting original Trap Coin with the Golden Bait will ever put it up for sale. Our guess is that his prized possession will hold a special place in his collection, and the tale that it tells will be told for generations.

But thanks to Roman’s gracious permission to reproduce and our team’s unyielding determination, you have one more chance to own the authorized replica. Only 999 replicas will ever be produced so reserve yours now before the opportunity is gone – again, and forever.