NEW
YORK (CNN/Money) - It won't be wooden and it still won't be all nickel,
but the nation's 5-cent piece soon will have a new look. The U.S. Mint
said the new 5-cent coins will be issued for three years starting this
year to recognize the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase and the
Lewis and Clark expedition. The nickel's current design was introduced
65 years ago, in 1938.
"It
is a new century, and the United States is in a renaissance of coin design,"
Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore said. "This is a very historic moment.
It marks the first time in 65 years that Americans will reach into their
pockets and pull out newly designed nickels." "Americans used to change
designs every seven or eight years in the last century. Now we do it every
25 years or so. We've gotten out of the habit," she added.
Images
of the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark's legendary trip across the
West will be shown on the "tails" side of the new coins. The "heads"
side will continue to carry President Jefferson's face to recognize his
role in the purchase from the French and the commissioning
of Lewis and Clark's journey.
Holsman
Fore couldn't elaborate on the number of designers contracted to revamp
the coin, but she noted that both engravers and artists would
have input on the final design.
"Coins
are a miniature work of art on a metallic material. The collecting community
has been asking for [a new nickel] for years," she asserted.
In
terms of popularity, the penny has the highest circulation and is closely
followed by quarters.
"Over
half of our mintage in any year is the penny. We minted more than 7 billion
last year," she said.
How
does the nickel compare? The U.S. Mint issued approximately 1.2 billion
new nickels last year. Designed to last for well over one hundred
years, nickels are usually taken out of circulation every thirty years.
The
original U.S. nickel, introduced in 1793, was designed to have 1/20th the
silver of the silver dollar coin. But the coin was so small it was difficult
for people to handle, so in 1866 it was enlarged and changed to a copper
and nickel combination, the birth of the modern nickel.
