Our five cent coin today is called a “nickel.” But the strange thing is, the first coins in the US to be called nickels were not five cent pieces. The first coins to be called “nickels” were the 1857-1858 Flying Eagle Cents and the 1859-1864 Indian Head Cents because of their 12% nickel and 88% copper mix. # equals the number of children the person who is famous for the quote to start the cache description had. They were called “nicks” for short. So if you heard the term “two nicks” during the Civil War, it meant “two cents.” The very first five cent coins in the US were called “half dimes” or “half dismes.”
In 1865, the three-cent nickel was introduced and the nickel content was raised to 25%.
The Shield nickel, designed by James B Longacreby, was the first nickel five-cent piece minted in the United States, in accordance with the Act of May 16, 1866. @ equals the number of times the person who made the starting quote of this cache was elected president of the United States. There is an early variety with rays passing from the numeral 5 through the spaces between the stars. These were minted only in 1866 and during part of 1867. Longacre's original design had failed to take into account the difficulties of minting with such a hard alloy, and the rays caused a general lack of detail in areas on the opposite face of the coin.
The metallurgical difficulties were the source of many minting errors in the Shield nickels. It is unusual to find a piece that does not have die cracks, and such examples trade for more in uncirculated condition, unlike many other coins where die cracks are considered an interesting variety with slight to moderate premium value.
From 1883 to 1912, the Liberty Head V Nickel was produced. But a mint official illegally produced an unknown quantity of 1913 Liberty Head V Nickels with only five known to exist today. $ equals the number of letters in the TEAM the person who made the quote to start this cache played for. These coins are some of the highest valued coins in American Numismatics. In 2005, a specimen sold at auction for $4.15 Million. In 2010, another one sold for $3.7 Million. One of the problems with this coin was that it was the same size as a $5 Gold Piece, therefore, counterfeiters would gold leaf the coin and pass it off as a Gold Piece.
The Indian Head/Buffalo Nickel was produced from 1913 to 1938. Several Native American’s claimed to have been the model for the Indian Head for the mint engraver, James Fraser, but the model was most likely Iron Tail or Two Moons. The Buffalo was the bison, named Black Diamond, from the New York Central Park Zoo.
Some 1.2 billion buffalo nickels were issued during the coin's 26-year lifespan, and only one date/mintmark combination (the 1926-S) had a mintage of less than 1 million. No buffalo nickels were made in 1922, 1932, or 1933. The lack of 1922 nickels, as well as some other denominations, resulted from the Mint's placing a priority on silver dollar production due to an economic recession that year, and no nickels — and many other denominations — were issued in 1932 or 1933 due to the Great Depression.
The Jefferson Nickel came into existence in 1938 and was produced until 2003. The coin has a left facing President Jefferson on the obverse (front) and Monticello, Jefferson’s Virginia estate, on the reverse.
From mid-1942 to 1945, so-called Wartime composition nickels were created. These coins are 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. * equals the last number of the year of death of the president who is on our current nickel. The only other U.S. coins to use manganese are the Sacagawea and Presidential dollars. These coins are usually a bit darker than regular nickels, said to be due to their manganese content (as was true of many British coins minted from 1920 through 1947). However, carefully protected proof sets of these coins are difficult to tell from the standard alloy.
The wartime nickel features the largest mint mark to ever appear on a United States coin, located above Monticello’s dome on the reverse. This mark was a large D, S, or P, as appropriate for each mint. Nickels of this series minted in Philadelphia have the unique distinction of being the only U.S. coins minted prior to 1979 to bear a P mint mark. When the price of silver rose in the 1960s the "war nickels" quickly disappeared from circulation.
Throughout the 20th century, Congress allowed the US Mint to make changes to coinage every 25 years without specific authorization. Since the 1990s the government had begun to respond to lobbying in favor of changing coinage design. + equals how many nickels it takes to make a dime. This led to the State Quarters series and in 2002, a proposal to change 2003 nickels as well. Initial proposals by the Mint had a new obverse based on a portrait by Gilbert Stuart, and a reverse with an American Indian and a bald eagle facing west.
Congressman Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), the Chief Deputy Majority Whip for his party, objected to the lack of consultation with Congress about their proposal, and was particularly concerned that Monticello, located near his district, would not return to the reverse of the nickel in 2006. Some raised the issue that the Mint's proposed new reverse did not relate specifically enough to Lewis and Clark or the Louisiana Purchase, the events that the proposed changes were meant to commemorate. There are 3 special portraits of Thomas Jefferson in the cache for the First to Find. This led to the enactment of Public Law 108-15, the American 5-cent Coin Design Continuity Act, in 2003. This act, originally dubbed the Keep Monticello on the Nickel Act by Cantor, modified the United States Code to require the return to a depiction of Monticello starting in January 2006, and permanently eliminate the Mint's right to change it again without Congressional approval. The delay and controversy meant the Mint ran out of time to change the reverse of the nickel in 2003.
Upon passage of Cantor's new law, the Mint proposed the Westward Journey nickel series. The series consisted of two new reverse designs for 2004 and two for 2005.
In 2004, the reverse of the nickel changed, with two different designs during the year. The first design, placed into circulation on March 1, 2004, featured a design based upon a rendition of the original Indian Peace Medal commissioned for Lewis and Clark's expedition. It was designed by Norman E. Nemeth.
In late 2004, the reverse changed again to feature a view of Lewis and Clark's keelboat in full sail that transported members of the Corps of Discovery expedition and their supplies through the rivers of the Louisiana Territory. This design depicts Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in full uniform, standing in the bow of the keelboat.
On September 16, 2004, the U.S. Mint unveiled its new designs for 2005. The U.S. Mint revealed that the Felix Schlag depiction of Thomas Jefferson was being done away with in favor of a more modern depiction of Jefferson. Its circulation began on February 28, 2005.
Also unveiled on September 16, 2004 were two new reverses. A depiction of the American bison temporarily returned to the reverse after a 67-year absence. ^ equals how many letters are in either last name of the captains who led the expedition into the Northwest Territory (not added together) The U.S. Mint had been lobbied to include the American bison on the nickel in the hope of keeping the public interested in its continuing recovery after nearly being hunted to extinction after the completion of the transcontinental railroad.
The final Westward Journey nickel reverse depicts the Pacific Ocean and the words from William Clark's diary upon reaching it. In a controversial move, the U.S. Mint decided to amend Clark's actual words. He had originally written, "Ocian in view! O! The Joy!" but as the spelling "ocian" is nonstandard (and might have led to hoarding in the mistaken belief that the Mint had made an error that would soon be corrected), the U.S. Mint decided to modify it to "ocean."
In 2006, the nickel returned to using Felix Schlag's Monticello design on a newly cast reverse, while the obverse features a new forward-facing portrait of Jefferson, based on the 1800 Rembrandt Peale painting of Jefferson. It is the first U.S. circulating coin that features the image of a President facing forward. The word Liberty is shown in Jefferson's own handwriting, as it was on the 2005 Westward Journey nickels.
Interesting factoid: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are the only two presidents to pass away the same day and coincidently, it was on The Fourth of July.
N33 47.#@$
W117 57.*+^
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