We have all heard about magnificent carvings that prisoners have made in jail from things such as bone, teeth and wood. But convicted forger A. Schiller who was serving his time in Sing Sing prison in the late 1800s, took it one step further. When his guards found him dead in his cell, on his body they found seven regular straight pins whose heads measured the typical 47/1000ths of an inch or 1.17 millimeters in diameter. Under 500 magnification it was found that the tiny etchings seen on the heads of the pins were the words to The Lord’s Prayer, which is 65 words and 254 letters long. Of the seven pins, six were silver and one was gold - the gold pin’s prayer was flawless and a true masterpiece. Schiller had spent the last 25 years of his life creating the pins, using a tool too small to be seen by the naked eye. It is estimated that it took 1,863 sepatate carving strokes to make it. Schiller went blind because of his artwork.
It seems such a waste of talent, but perhaps now at least people will remember him, whereas if he was not incarcerated he would be just another forgotten forger.
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