THE UNITED States has had 5c coins made with nickel since 1866. Well before that year and continuing for a few years after, coins with a 5c denomination were made primarily of silver. These were the half dimes, and the first “old” coin in my collection was a Seated Liberty half dime. I found it knotted inside a distant relative’s silk scarf.
What happened to this first coin in my collection is almost too painful to relate. For some reason, my mother carried it in her purse for safekeeping. Unfortunately, she put her purse atop the family car one day and then drove off, forgetting it was there. That day someone undoubtedly discovered my half dime when he/she opened the purse found by the side of the road in Houston, Texas.
Although I’m going to talk about the designs of nickels in this article, with the exception of War Nickels, the metallic composition of the coins has been 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. Should they be called 5c coppers rather than nickels? Or perhaps copper nickels? After all, the U.S. had copper-nickel cents from 1856-1864, and their nickel content was only 12 percent.
At any rate,
