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WASHINGTON (Oct. 5) - After nearly 100 years of depicting presidents in somber profiles on the nation's coins, the Mint is trying something different: The new nickel features Thomas Jefferson, facing forward, with the hint of a smile. "It isn't a silly smile or a smirk, but a sense of optimism that I was trying to convey with the expression," says Jamie Franki, an associate professor of art at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. His drawing was chosen out of 147 entries. In unveiling the design Tuesday, Mint officials said they believed the new image of Jefferson was an appropriate...

EARTH'S natural radioactivity has been measured for the first time. The measurement will help geologists find out to what extent nuclear decay is responsible for the immense quantity of heat generated by Earth. Our planet's heat output drives the convection currents that churn liquid iron in the outer core, giving rise to Earth's magnetic field. Just where this heat comes from is a big question. Measurements of the temperature gradients across rocks in mines and boreholes have led geologists to estimate that the planet is internally generating between 30 and 44 terawatts of heat. Some of this heat comes from...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Not many people can retire on a nickel - unless it's a rare 1913 Liberty Head like the one that sold Thursday for $4.15 million. It is the second-highest price ever reported paid for a rare coin. Legend Numismatics, a coin dealership in Lincroft, N.J., bought it from collector Ed Lee of Merrimack, N.H. It is one of only five such nickels known to exist. "Owning a 1913 Liberty Head nickel is unlike owning any other coin in the world," said Laura Sperber, co-president of Legend Numismatics. She called the 1913 Liberty Head the most famous...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON (AP) -- With 2,000-pound Cody the bison standing as a silent witness, the U.S. Mint marked the return of the buffalo nickel Tuesday after a 67-year absence. Accompanied by Indian dancing, drum-beating and chanting, U.S. Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore displayed the new nickels publicly for the first time during a ceremony on the snowy grounds of Capitol Hill with Cody standing patiently next to her, occasionally snorting in the cold air. Some 97 million of the five-cent coins are being shipped this week from the Federal Reserve's 12 regional...

WASHINGTON - There's change in store for Thomas Jefferson — on the nickel that is. He's getting his first makeover since his likeness was put on the coin in 1938. The makers of the nation's coins, the U.S. Mint, was unveiling Thursday designs for two new nickels. It's the latest in a series of design changes for the coins to honor two important events in U.S. history: the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The revamped nickels will be issued in 2005. A new likeness of Jefferson, the third president, will be on the front of the two...

Woman Gets Notice for Owing a Nickel Associated Press July 15, 2004, 7:03 PM EDT EAST WENATCHEE, Wash. -- When the Washington state Department of Employment Security notified Sandi Bryan that she owed money for an unemployment compensation overpayment more than six years ago, she picked up the phone. Little good that did -- until word that she was being threatened with court action over a nickel reached the right ears. Bryan told The Wenatchee World she asked the state employee who took her call on a toll-free line whether she should mail in a nickel taped to a piece...

NEW ORLEANS - A 1913 Liberty Head nickel that was minted under mysterious circumstances, owned by royalty and celebrated in an episode of TV's "Hawaii Five-O" was sold Thursday for $3 million. "Many argue this is the most important coin in our history," said Bruce L. Smith of Blanchard and Co., which brokered the sale. "I think it's the most beautiful." Neither the buyer, described as both a collector and investor, nor the seller was identified. At least two other coins have sold for more, both at auction. In 1999, an 1804 silver dollar sold for $4.14 million. Two years...

The largest nickel producer in the world, Russian company Norilsk Nickel, announced first-quarter profit increased on 82 percent under Russian accounting standards as metals prices rised to record high. Net income rose to $600 million from $330 million a year earlier, according to company’s spokeswoman. "In subsequent quarters their earnings should be a little bit lower," said Scott Semet, an analyst at MDM Bank. Market prices for nickel and other metals fell last month as buyers turned to cheaper substitutes and investors speculated that demand may slow in China. Nickel reached a 14-year high, platinum a 24-year peak and palladium...

#315 - Move Over, Gold... The Investment U E-Letter Friday, February 27, 2004 * * * * * * * Move Over, Gold... Here's why it might be time to start burying pennies and nickels in your back yard, too... By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud President, Investment U You need to make some room next to the gold buried in your backyard... Room for pennies and nickels... I'm only half joking. Starting this year, pennies and nickels may be worth more for their metal content than for their purchasing power. It's true... The U.S. dollar has been crashing in value in...

<p>YORK (CNN/Money) - In April of this year, the U.S. Mint announced that it would redesign the five-cent coin, with a new nickel to be released in 2004. Today, the Mint unveiled designs for not one new nickel, but two.</p>

(WASHINGTON) -- After 65 years, the American nickel is getting its first makeover. But you'll have to flip it over to see a difference. Thomas Jefferson's face will still be on the front. But the back will be different. Instead of Jefferson's home, Monticello, it will depict scenes from the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis-and-Clark expedition to commemorate their bicentennials. Jefferson arranged the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States. He also was the force behind the expedition by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to the Pacific coast and back. The U.S. Mint, which makes the nation's...

<p>By Sarah Brumfield, Associated Press, 7/30/2003 10:53 BALTIMORE (AP) A million-dollar mystery was solved early Wednesday with experts certifying that a nickel that had been missing for decades is the fifth 1913 Liberty Head nickel.</p> <p>Relatives of the late George Walton, a North Carolina coin dealer, took the coin to the experts at the American Numismatic Association convention that opened Wednesday. The relatives did not want to be identified.</p>

News Home - Yahoo! - Help ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! News   Sat, Jun 21, 2003   Business - Dow Jones Business News Indonesia Antam: Nickel Demand Strong Despite Outokumpu Thu Jun 19, 8:27 AM ET Singapore, June 19 (OsterDowJones) - Despite one of the world's largest stainless steel makers saying demand has softened, China's strong consumption growth is enough to boost demand for nickel, the key raw material, Indonesia's PT Aneka Tambang told OsterDowJones late Thursday. As the company, also known as Antam, sells 50% of its annual nickel production to Europe, it watches warnings from European steel makers keenly, but...

Wanted: nickel with a $1m price on its head By David Usborne in New York 31 May 2003 Americans are being asked to rummage in their attics and pockets for a single coin, which, should they find it, could make them very wealthy indeed. The Liberty Head Nickel may have a face value of only five cents, but it could be worth US$1m (about £610,000). A New Hampshire gallery, Bowers and Merena, which specialises in precious coins, has issued a $1m reward for the nickel, one of only five minted 90 years ago under clandestine circumstances. From 1883 until 1912,...

Bowers and Merena Galleries/AP Photo of a rare 1913 Liberty Head nickel, one of five in the world. CONCORD, N.H. -- A nationwide bounty hunt is under way -- with a $1 million reward. The target: a 90-year-old nickel. After being born of questionable, some say clandestine, circumstances, five 1913 Liberty Head nickels surfaced in the 1920s. Two are in private collections, two are in museums, but the whereabouts of the fifth has confounded collectors for at least 40 years."There's a little bit of gimmick to it," concedes Paul Montgomery, president of Bowers and Merena Galleries of Wolfeboro, N.H.,...

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...

High nickel levels in some euro coins can cause red hands and painful itching, researchers warn. Other symptoms include inflation, loss of national sovereignty, bureaucrats in Brussels being insufferably smug... - Ivan Researchers from the University of Zurich say the design of the one and two euro coins - an external ring of metal surrounding an inner "pill" of a different colour - lead to the release of high levels of the metal. They say the yellow and white alloys contain different amounts of nickel, copper and zinc, which encourage corrosion as metal ions flow from one alloy to the...

The U.S. Mint almost booted Monticello off the nickel this week — until Virginia's delegation to the House of Representatives, led by Republican Eric Cantor, introduced legislation to stop it. That's the story Cantor's office is spreading, though the Mint says the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding. What's clear, however, is that the Mint doesn't want next year's nickels looking like the ones now jingling in your pocket. The Mint would like to redesign all of America's coins. Its ongoing 50 State Quarters program has been a popular success. As a celebration of federalism, too, it's something conservatives...