Talk:Nickel (United States coin)

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[edit] Picture of the pre-2004 revision nickel please?

I find it completely odd that we possibly have every single other picture of the nickel except for the one that is still in common circulation. I'm talking about the one with the Monticello design on the back, with Jefferson facing sideways. Can somebody remedy this? Cerealchan 03:44, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nickle/Nickel

"Nickle!"

American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd and 4th edition, says "Nickel" for both metal and coin. There is no entry for "Nickle."

The United States Mint, on their web site, spells the name of the coin "Nickel." -- Seth Ilys 02:45, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Merriam-Webster says that both "nickel" and "nickle" are acceptable spellings, but lists "nickle" as a secondary variant that occurs less frequently than "nickel". --Bkell 02:48, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
In everyday usage, I see "nickel" far, far more often than "nickle." (When I do see "nickle," it's usually written by someone who has made a ton of other spelling errors.)

[edit] Removal from Article: annecdote

Moved from article:

One fellow, named Josh Tatum who was a deaf mute, passed hundreds of these all over the nation. He handed the coin to the store owner, and smiled and accepted the change for his 3 cent cigar or 2 cent piece of candy whether they handed him 2-3 cents or $4.97 cents. He'd tip his hat and go on. Josh got caught eventually, but his lawyer got him off since he had never said that it was a $5 gold piece. He didn't say anything at all you see... which was readily apparent to the jury. This is the origin of the word "joshing" meaning 'to fool'.

This sounded fishy (urban legend-esque), so I checked with OED on the etymology of the verb to josh. Sure enough, the OED gives Josh Billings (an "American humourist") as the Josh who became a verb, so to speak. The first citation given comes from 1845, almost forty years before the V nickel was introduced. The etymology part is certainly false, then, and I would like to see some reputable (non-folkloric) source citing Tatum by name to verify the rest. (The fact that gold-plated V nickels were passed as five-dollar coins is not in dispute.) —Tkinias 00:52, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

You're right of course about the etymology. Apparently the Tatum story may or may not be apocryphal, but it probably needs some sort of mention in the article I think. Here are a couple of sources online: [1] (toward the bottom) and [2]. Anyway, he certainly doesn't need his name linked, because even if he did exist, this would be his only claim to fame. - Hephaestos|§ 22:40, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)
I've put back in a mention of Tatum but noted that the story is likely apocryphal. Will this work? —Tkinias 10:54, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Sales related link

1913 Liberty Head Nickel Sells for $3M

Head's up on this liberty nickel sale. Maybe a bit more on the myth from coin people to drive wiki-traffic? :) jengod 22:14, May 20, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] True or false??

True or false: the answer to the following question is known:

"Will the Monticello back design return to the nickel in 2006??" 66.245.127.112 23:39, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I think the answer is known, and it's "No." I believe a new buffalo nickel design will come out for a couple years.
The answer is yes. Monticello is on the coin due to a law that was passed a number of years ago. The design may change, but rest assured Monticello will return. --Cholmes75 03:27, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Debasement/Metric System

I think the mention of the one cent/gram value of nickels is useful info, but I'm not sure what the author of that paragraph is trying to say with the sentence "They were designed as 5 grams in the metric units..."

Clarification, please?

Also, I don't think "debasement" is really the right word for what happened to the US nickel in 1942-45. Since it _had_ no precious metal content, and its precious metal content was actually _increased_, I think this is a really bad example of "debasement." Technically, the US five-cent piece was debased when the nickel itself was introduced in 1866, as the nickel succeeded the half-dime (which was silver) as the primary five-cent coin. Chris Lawson 05:20, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Why was silver added to the nickel in those years? I thought for sure that was an error. -- Nik42 04:29, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Nickel and copper were critical to the war effort, so every effort was made to allocate these raw materials to the war first, and to coinage second. Silver served little military purpose, as did zinc, which is why Treasury decided to use different compositions for the five- and one-cent pieces during World War II. (Incidentally, a significant number of 1944-dated cents were made from melted brass shell casings, as the steel cents were a disaster.)—chris.lawson (talk) 15:42, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The Buffalo's, ahem, business

I have heard (from somewhat dubious sources) that complaints have been lodged over the visible buffalo phallus on the new buffalo nickel. Can anyone substantiate this? -- BD2412 talk 18:00, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

  • I've not heard of such complaints. --Cholmes75 03:28, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Section names

Since there is to be a new design beginning in '06, should the section names be modified? I'm thinking Jefferson Nickel (1938- ) should be changed to something like "Portrait Jefferson Nickel (1938-2003)" and the new design as "Forward Jefferson Nickel (2006- )", but perhaps someone else can come up with better terms to distinguish the two Nik42 09:29, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

The 2006 nickel is supposed to be the nickel long-term, so the page (including the top right section with the pictures and minting dates) should be changed to reflect that. --68.100.250.35 19:12, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wanted: Backside of Jefferson Nickel

Please can someone provide an image of the backside of the Jefferson Nickel? Thank you. --Alexander.stohr 01:34, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Which one? Joe I 22:16, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Completely uninteresting anecdote

I ended up with an old buffalo nickel this week; it ended up in my pocket change somehow. NorphTehDwarf 07:16, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] five-hundredths

This term is a bit confusing, it could be interpreted as 1/500. I have changed to five onehundreths.

[edit] 1926-S

I have a buffalo nickel from 1926, but I am having trouble finding information on what makes in a 1926-S as opposed to a 1926. I see no mintmarkings or anything either. Any information that might describe this would be valuable here in the discussion and also on the article page. Thanks for the help. Djramey 13:24, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Refer to the Indian Head nickel article. I have updated the contents of it with mintmark information. Specifically, the 'S' is the mintmark from the San Francisco Mint. Interesting, the nickel I used to scan was also a 1926-S. --Kurt 22:45, 11 September 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Picture of the Full Jefferson Profile

I was interested in the Westward Journey nickel series. I found all the coins but was struck by a 2006 coin with a new full profile of Jefferson, and the conteporary image of monticello.

I found your entry for it but only after mistaking this coin for westword series. Novices like myself need a picture. I would suggest you putting the Forward-Facing Jefferson (2006- ) picture in that description. You do have the picture futher up to the right, but I found the referance confusing.

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