How Your Nickel Coins Have Evolved Over The Years

A nickel coin is a coin that is worth five cents in the United States. The first design came in 1938, which included a picture of President Thomas Jefferson on it. From 1938 to 2003, the picture of Monticello was always on one side of the coin. In 2004 and 2005, there were design differences. Various pictures were stamped on the back of the nickel coin. The design changes, called the Westward Journey series, were intended to commemorate the bicentennials of the Louisiana Purchase as well as the Lewis and Clark expedition. However, in 2006, the design was back to the original with Monticello on the back and Jefferson on the front of the nickel coin.

The brief history of the nickel coin

Small five-cent pieces, called half dimes, precede the nickel coins. During and after the American Civil War, there was a shortage of silver and producing these half dimes became too expensive. Therefore, a new type of metal should be used to create the five-cent coins. During this period, people started using copper and this metal is also used to make nickel coin today. In the past, there were problems to create the coins because nickel is a very hard metal. However, with today's advanced minting equipment, there is no problem in creating nickel coins.

Around the mid of 20th century, we could use the nickel coin to place a local phone call from every public phone booth in the United States. In fact, many rural places still charged a nickel in the 1970s. During that time, a nickel could be used to ride on a public transport vehicle, like a bus or a subway anywhere you like. It is interesting to see that a nickel coin could be used to get a lot of things when it was first invented.

You might be surprised to find out that this coin was called nickel before it was made out of nickel. Originally, the term nickel was used to the Indian Head coins that existed from 1859 to 1864. The coins were known as nickels during the American Civil War and in 1866 the Shield nickel became very popular. This nickel coin was the beginning and it becomes a part of American history.

In the end of 2006, the value of metal in the nickel coin was 11.5% higher than its face value due to the rising costs of copper and nickel as well as the weak U.S. Dollar. Therefore, the government introduced new rule prohibiting the melting and export of nickel coin.

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