"Sacagawea" Portrait of Trish Perry Shoshone Indian - Lander, Wyoming Carved Masterpieces By Ron Landis    How It Came To Pass: When the water is still "too hard" in Ontario to go fishing my energies have to be turned in other directions. So, I have made several trips to Eureka Springs to visit the Gallery Mint over the winter months. My fishing buddy, Kenny, and I take off at 3AM and return home about 9PM after 600 miles of driving, a great breakfast in Jasper, Missouri and a Chinese lupper (lunch and supper) in Cassville, Missouri.    We did "our thing" on Saturday April 28th and found both Joe and Ron busy at work. I managed to talk Ron into selling me the two wonderful carvings you see here and I thought you might like to share them with me. I don't know what I'm going to do with them down the road in the future because my kids wouldn't have a clue what they are. Maybe I'll have to donate them to the Gallery Mint Museum once my health fails and someone pries them out of my cold dead fingers.    Sacagawea - Landis#151: The "Sacagawea" carving is of a young Shoshone woman that Ron met in a gift shop close to where Sacagawea is buried. Ron has used her likeness on several pieces leading up to the Concept and Prototype pattern golden dollars he created and submitted for consideration by the U.S.Mint. Speaking of that distinguished effort... Ron showed me another nickel carving of a Rampant Dragon posed in a very similar position of the Eagle on his 1997 GMM Hobo Token. These pieces were intertwined in the creation of Ron's Eagle reverse die that the Mint gave serious consideration to as the reverse of their Golden Dollar design. I tried to buy the Dragon carving from Ron but it wasn't for sale.    George Washington "Bo" Hughes - Landis#186: The "Self Portrait" of George Washington "Bo" Hughes carving is the model that Ron carved and then made transfer dies, or whatever the correct terminology is, for the striking of his 2001 GMM Hobo Token. I had a choice of either the "Walking Hobo" or the "Self Portrait" carvings and that was a tough choice. He had the obverse die "Hobo Bust" carving that was used in the same manner for his 2001 OHNS Hobo Token. That carving was my first choice but he allowed as how he really needed to place it in an auction so other OHNS members have a chance to purchase it. I understood his position, although that is not to say I was exactly jubilant, ...but... I wasn't too unhappy either because of my other fabulous alternatives.    The One That Got Away: Ron had a carving of former President Ronald Reagan that was absolutely superb. It was quite a bit more money than "BO" and I was never a big fan of Ronnie so I took the "BO" carving. I suppose the Reagan carving would have been the better investment over the long haul but I buy pieces for my own pleasure and not to make money from. If I got large amounts of money from a piece I'd just turn around and give it to Ron and Joe again anyway.    The Grand Finale ...or... "The BIG Surprise": Now then... down to the COOL part of all this rambling. Ron told me he wouldn't let me take "BO" until he had placed his serial number on the reverse. All these model carvings were ground flat on the reverse as part of the production process necessary to create the dies for the Hobo Tokens. So... I decided to not stick around under his feet while he engraved the number and date on the reverse. I sure am glad I made that decision! Why? Because... when I opened up my package from the Gallery Mint, out tumbled the wonderfully engraved piece you see pictured here. I would NEVER have considered asking Ron to spend so much of his valuable time on such a specialized personal effort but I am ecstatic that he did this for me. I called him immediately to make sure he knew how wonderful and meaningful this was to me. AGAIN... THANKS RON! "Self Portrait" of George Washington "Bo" Hughes Verne R. Walrafen OHNS#620