Common, scarce and rare U.S.
Nickels at Mintmark.com.
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NICKEL (UNITED STATES COIN)—. . .
Background—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 special nickel-free versions were issued temporarily 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 Head 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. This gave rise to the phrase
It's your nickel in conversations to refer to the prerogative of the person who paid for the telephone call to steer the conversation. 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 . . ." —
Nickel (United States coin) at Wikipedia. Edited and (or) revised by Mintmark.com
Shield Nickels
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Liberty Head
Nickels
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Buffalo Nickels
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Jefferson Nickels
Westward Journey
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