Nickels

The United States five-cent coin, commonly called a nickel, is a unit of currency equaling one-twentieth, or five hundredths, of a United States dollar. more...

Home
Bullion
Coins: Ancient
Coins: US
2, 3 & 20 Cents
Collections, Lots
Colonial
Commemorative
Dimes
Dollars
Errors
Gold
Half Cents
Half Dimes
Halves
Large Cents
Mint Sets
Nickels
Buffalo (1913-38)
Jefferson (1938-Now)
Liberty (1883-1913)
Nickels: Other
Shield (1866-83)
Other US Coins
Proof Sets
Quarters
Rolls
Small Cents
Coins: World
Exonumia
Paper Money: US
Paper Money: World
Publications & Supplies
Scripophily

The nickel's design since 1938 has featured a profile of President Thomas Jefferson on the obverse. From 1938 to 2003, Monticello was featured on the reverse. For 2004 and 2005, nickels featured new designs to commemorate the bicentennials of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition; these new designs were called the Westward Journey nickel series. In 2006, Monticello returned to the reverse, while a new image of Jefferson facing forward was featured on the obverse.

General history

Prior to introduction of the nickel, five-cent pieces were very small silver coins called half dimes. Due to shortages of silver during and after the American Civil War, an alternative metal was needed for five-cent coinage, and the copper-nickel alloy still in use today was selected. Numerous problems plagued the coinage of nickels through the middle of the 20th century due to the extreme hardness of the alloy, but modern minting equipment has proven more than adequate for the task.

Nickels have always had a value of one cent per gram (even when debased during World War II). They were designed as 5 grams in the metric units when they were introduced in 1866, shortly before the Act of July 28, 1866 declared the metric system to be legal for use in the United States.

Applying the term "nickel" to a coin actually precedes the usage of five-cent pieces made from nickel alloy. The term was originally applied to the Indian cent coin from 1859–1864 which was composed of copper-nickel. Throughout the Civil War these cents were referred to as "nickels" or "nicks". When the three-cent nickel came onto the scene in 1865, these were the new "nickels" to the common person on the street. In 1866, the Shield nickel hit the spotlight and forever changed the way Americans associated coins made from nickel alloy with a particular denomination.

Local calls placed from public phone booths in the United States cost a nickel in most places until the early 1950s, when the charge was doubled to a dime (10 cents). However, in some places — notably in New Orleans, but mostly in scattered rural areas — the price for such calls remained at a nickel as late as the mid-1970s. The cost of a ride on a public transit vehicle — such as a bus or subway — also stood at a nickel during the same period that a pay-phone call carried that charge, in many cities.

Shield nickel (1866–1883)

The shield nickel, designed by James B. Longacre, was the first nickel five-cent piece minted in the United States, in accordance with the Act of May 16, 1866. 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 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.

Read more at Wikipedia.org