Keith Pedersen

Mild mannered, hard working family man, that's Keith Pedersen. During the day Keith does maintenance on one of the Bridges in New York City. On weekends, he is busy lettering trucks, signs, or boats. Keith is a self taught artist living in New Jersey with his wife and three young children.

His artistic journey started early in life. When he was a teenager, he met Ed "Big Daddy" Roth at a local car show. Keith and Ed hit it off, and he soon found himself traveling to car shows working for Ed. Through Ed and his array of friends, Keith learned about pinstriping, signs, truck lettering and engraving.

While recuperating from an injury at the bridge, Keith had plenty of time and started studying hand engraving. He started small with Zippo lighters and money clips. Then moving on to knives, belt buckles and car parts, He then started engraving Harley Davidson parts for friends and customers. Not knowing if he would be able to return to the bridge, he decided to start a small sign business, which left him with little time to engrave.

In early 2002 through a web search on engraving, He discovered the world of hobo nickels. He went to a local coin show to buy some buffalo nickels to carve and the first dealer he met was Dave Wilson, a hobo nickel authenticator and collector. After studying some of Dave's old original carved nickels, Keith tried his hand at carving some nickels of his own. He has been selling his coins on ebay and really enjoys the time spent on each carving.