Nickel Makeover to Commemorate 2 Events

Kansas City Star ^ | 4-24-03

[mikenola]

Posted on Thu, Apr. 24, 2003

Nickel Makeover to Commemorate 2 Events REBECCA CARROLL Associated Press

WASHINGTON -The nickel is getting a makeover.

The back side of the new 5-cent coin will commemorate the bicentennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark expedition. The U.S. Mint hopes to issue the nickels late this year or in early 2004.

In 2006, nickels will return to a depiction of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's Virginia home, although the image will not necessarily replicate the version on today's coin.

Lawmakers from Virginia pushed for and received assurance that the coin design eventually would go back to an image of the Virginia landmark. Some coin collectors worried that Virginia was trying to lay undue claim to the nickel.

Jefferson, who made the Louisiana Purchase and was the force behind the Lewis and Clark expedition, will remain on the front side of the new coins.

Legislation introduced in January by Republican Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia introduced and signed by President Bush on Wednesday established a committee to advise on a possible design or designs.

"There's a real spirit of renaissance" in coin design, Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore said in an interview, citing the 2002 introduction of the Europe's common currency. "This is a new century and it is an historic period for the United States, so thinking about design is something people are doing."

The last change to the nickel's design was in 1938. The current Jefferson and Monticello images replaced what was known as the "buffalo nickel," which had been in circulation since 1913.

William T. Gibbs, news editor at Coin World, the largest weekly publication for coin collectors, said most of his readership will be happy with the change, "especially if the designs are pleasing to the eye."

He acknowledged that some die-hard collectors who have memorized minute details of the current nickel design might not enjoy the new design. But, he said, "Overall, this is very exciting to most of us in the coin collecting hobby."

Latest figures show nickel circulation at 18.9 billion. The Mint said it would increase production if the public began collecting the new nickels in large numbers.

The Mint does not plan to change the five-cent coin's 75 percent copper, 25 percent nickel composition. During World War II, nickel was temporarily taken out of coin's mix because the metal was needed for the war effort. Otherwise, the 5-cent coin always has contained nickel, remaining faithful to its name since it was introduced in the mid-19th century.

The last redesign of the nation's coinage involved the limited-issue state quarters, which are still being issued. According the Mint, more than 130 million people collect the limited-issue state quarters.

ON THE NET

Mint: http://www.usmint.gov/

[mikenola]

visit the The Blog that Care Forgot

[Revolting cat!]

First they screwed up the $20 dollah bill, then they f****d with the quarter so it won't play 3 tunes on a jukebox, then they messed up a dime so it won't pay for a local phone call, now they got their paws on the nickel! I'm moving to Paraguay after this!

[Noslrac]

All these weird coins make it easy for people to pass off canadian coinage as US coins. Nothing like getting ripped off when someone gives you a "quarter" worth half of what its supposed to be.

[Tulsa Brian]

I'm glad to see this country's problems are beeing taken care of...

[pbear8]

I want nothing even remotely French on my coins thank you.

[Conservative til I die]

Thank goodness the Mint is finally getting the balls to try changing the tired and from an artistic standpoint, horrid designs of our coins. Believe me, all this temporary commemorative stuff is just a trial run for a permanent change.

Unfortunately, the continued retardation of the public has been used as the excuse for keeping the designs as they are. Apparently the dopes of this country won't be able to tell how much money is in their pockets if the pictures are different.

[Cicero]

Do you really expect that any changes in our coins will be for the better? Graphic design and government sponsored art is at a low point right now, for the most part. The new paper money is dismally ugly.

[secret garden]

Not to mention scary, with those giant heads!

[Conservative til I die]

Some beautiful, circulating coins from our nation's past:


Mercury Dime, 1944


Standing Liberty Quarter, front and back, 1919


Walking Liberty Half Dollar, 1947


$20 St. Gauden's Double Eagle, 1927

[Conservative til I die]

I don't know if they *will* be better designs, but they *could* be better. Even just newness would ve a breath of fresh air.

Please also realize that some of the ugliness on paper money is for functional purposes. The large portraits in particular are to make the bills more identifiable for people that are visually impaired. That kind of functionality is not necessary for coins, since they are differentiated by size and also the texture of the rim of the coin (either smooth or serrated). Also, there are no security measures needed in the design, since coins are not counterfeited (at least not enough for anyone to care).

Oh, and BTW, they'll be redesigning paper money again soon anyway,for anti-counterfeiting purposes. I hear they'll be going multicolor.

[zeugma]

NO! Not the nickle!!!!!!!!!

Many of you might not have really noticed this but if you save all your nickles and start looking through the dates, you'll find coins from the 40s and 50s pretty regularly because the design hasn't changed in so long. One of my daughters expressed interest last year in collecting coins after I showed her some of the really nice ones I have, and I suggested that if she wants to put together a collection of anything fairly quickly, nickles were the place to start. Just save them all, then when you sort through them, keep only the best 2 of each year/mint. You'd be amazed at how quickly you can build a fairly robust collection (just for fun...not many of these will ever be worth anything).

Oh, well, there goes the mint screwing up a perfectly good coin yet again.

If they really want to do something usefull, they'd get rid of the penny and the single dollar bill. Pennys are worthless, and $1s have too high a velocity to last very long at all. Granted, the new $1 coins suck design wise, but I kinda like them as a form factor.

[zeugma]

Excellent graphics, and good picks. I have always been partial to the standing and walking liberties. I really like the eagle design on the back of the Morgan dollar though. It has always been my favorite.

[lennydetroit]

How right you are! The US has minted some beautiful coins in the past and I wish they would return to the pre-Lincoln Penny policy of not putting the images of real individuals on coins, thereby depolitisizing the process. Cases in point: the Susan B. Ugly dollar and the Sakajawea Squaw Buck fiasco (admittedly the SacBuck is a nice looking coin, but about all I can do with it now is leave it as a tip at my local bar).

By the way, you left out my favorite US coins, the $5 Indian gold piece.

Regards, Lenny

[general_re]

All these weird coins make it easy for people to pass off canadian coinage as US coins. Nothing like getting ripped off when someone gives you a "quarter" worth half of what its supposed to be.

If you regularly deal with a lot of coins, just keep a good ferrite or rare-earth magnet handy - Canadian coins all have a significant percentage of steel in them, and a good magnet will pick them out easily.

[Conservative til I die]

Beautiful coin with the engraving in the coin, not raised. I forget the exact term. I actually own one of those, but it's the $2.50 piece.

[Conservative til I die]

Oh, well, there goes the mint screwing up a perfectly good coin yet again.

The Jefferson nickel, like every other US circulating coin right now, is an ugly piece of crap. And an embarassment to numismatic design. BTW, I don't know how the Mint altering the design temporarily, while still keeping Jefferson on the obverse prevents you or anyone else from continuing a collection.

[Skooz]

Beautiful coins.

I've always been fond of the Franklin half dollar, for some reason.

[Conservative til I die]

I like the Franklins for the same reason I like the early JFK's, I believe they all had at least some silver content. Interesting tidbit about the back of the Franklin is that the eagle is very poorly done. The reason was that originally, the engraver left it off because Franklin himself was not a fan of the eagle as the national bird (he thought the turkey would be better). However, it's federal law that all US coinage must feature an eagle. So it was put on rather hastily and thus, looks the way it does.

[zeugma]

It doesn't prevent you from continuing a collection. What it does is cause the older coins to leave circulation earlier than would otherwise be the case. How many 'wheat' pennies do you see in circulation these days? They aren't any older than many of the nickels you regularly see in your change. The difference is the design change. You will also seldom see a quarter, dime, half or dollar in circulation that is older than 1965 due to the metal debasement that occurred then.

Granted, this won't happen overnight, but if they stick with the design, the older ones will go away much faster than otherwise would be the case.

I would agree with you that our coins aren't the most beautiful in the world, but I really wouldn't put money on the mint coming up with a really wonderful design like the walking liberty. It would seem to me that all the great engravers must be dead or something. They couldn't even come up with a good origional design for the 'silver eagles' and these are non-circulating.