Talk:Nickel (United States coin)

Discussion of 1964 mintage figures?

 * 1964 mintage figures (2.7 billion nickels) have never been surpassed. I'd guess this was in anticipation of a coin shortage the next year due to the changeover from silver to base metal for dimes and quarters. Can anybody substantiate this or provide an alternate explanation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Trentrockport (talk • contribs) 17:13, 6 December 2007 (UTC)


 * You pretty much hit the nail on the head there. So many people were hoarding dimes, quarters, and half dollars because of the upcoming phase-out of silver that nickels had to stand in for small change transactions due to the shortage of higher-denominated coins.  It wouldn't be until 1995 that mintage of nickels would even reach 1 billion again, and no year has surpassed 1964 in the mintage of nickels yet.  You can still find many 1964 nickels in circulation because of this.  24.8.252.164 (talk) 05:30, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

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)

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 &quot;nickel&quot; and &quot;nickle&quot; are acceptable spellings, but lists &quot;nickle&quot; 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.)


 * To me it seems similar to meter/metre, center/centre, theater/theatre, -- nickel/nickle. Brit vs. US spellings. What do you think? Sillybilly (talk) 17:19, 7 April 2010 (UTC)


 * When I was a kid (Michigan, early 1960s) I was taught that "nickel" was the metal and "nickle" was the coin. 24.61.4.237 (talk) 23:23, 4 March 2013 (UTC)


 * This also what I was taught, British Columbia, 1960s. 2001:56A:F0E9:9B00:D9EF:DE37:5A5F:D73E (talk) 03:59, 27 April 2022 (UTC)JustSomeWikiReader

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.) &mdash;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:  (toward the bottom) and . Anyway, he certainly doesn't need his name linked, because even if he did exist, this would be his only claim to fame. - Hephaestos|&#167; 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? &#8212;Tkinias 10:54, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * Even though it's been left there for over seven years, as a professional language researcher I cannot agree to the inclusion of a known false etymology in a reference work. I am therefore deleting it. --Thnidu (talk) 17:45, 30 August 2011 (UTC)
 * The 1883 nickel is sometimes referred to as the "racketeer nickel ," and Josh Tatum is sometimes cited as the source of the saying, "You're not Joshin' me, are you?".

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)

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)

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.)&mdash;chris.lawson (talk) 15:42, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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)


 * I'm sure some may have complained, but not a significant enough number to do anything to address the complaint apparently. Be rather odd if many had a problem with it... when if anything, it was just as obvious on the reverse of the buffalo nickel which ran from 1913 to 1938, which didn't receive a significant number of complainsts as far as I can tell.  24.8.252.164 (talk) 05:35, 17 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm no zoologist, but I'm fairly certain that the area in question is a tuft of fur.RHM22 (talk) 12:26, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

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)

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)

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

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)

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.

Coin name (nickel vs. five-cent)
I'm sure that the name nickel is the coin's common name in the United States, which is the country the currency officially belongs to. However, someone edited Template:US currency and coinage saying that "five cent" is a more common name. Anyone able to explain who uses which name?? Georgia guy 00:25, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I've been all over the U.S. in 40 years, and "nickel" is by far a more common term than 5-cent-piece West of the Rockies, anyway. Anybody from the East Coast or from a more bygone era, want to comment? Generally, common usage favors shorter words. Quarter and dime win out over 2-bit-piece and 10-cent-piece also. But for some reason, I've always heard penny (as the term for the COIN) more than "cent" in the US. Cent (as term for the coin) seems to the favored word of collectors. Though prices are generally given in cents, NEVER in pennies. S  B Harris 00:36, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * "Nickel" is definitely much more common, and if someone edited the template to reflect otherwise, I would expect to see a source cited for that.--chris.lawson 01:09, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I added the numerical value in brackets; hope this compromise is OK. –EdC 01:31, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, if "nickel" is on official website, and numeric value is also given, then I give. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 02:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Just to throw in my two cents (heh, heh), I'm east of the Rockies, and "nickel" wins hands down. Penny, nickel, dime, quarter . . . these are the only names I ever hear anyone use. The only U.S. coin that seems to genuinely have two common names is the half-dollar / 50-cent piece.  (I use the latter name, but I hear the former, too.) Funnyhat 07:10, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

"Nickel" is indeed the common term for the coin (as is "penny"), but "one nickel" (unlike "one dime," or the various fractions--quarter, half--and multiples of dollars) is not a denomination. United States money is a decimal system of cents, dimes and dollars. An article about the five-cent piece should be called by the denomination's proper name. Spark240 (talk) 06:32, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

That is, if the page for the one-cent denomination is not to be called "Penny," then the same logic says this one should be "Five cents (coin)," reflecting what the thing is, in fact, labeled. Spark240 (talk) 18:53, 3 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm content with the coin's common name as the article title, but to say its denomination is nickel makes me twitch. Its denomination is what it says on the coin, FIVE CENTS. You'll never see nickel used as an amount in any legal document. —Tamfang (talk) 07:28, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Wartime Nickel composition
The Presidential Dollar coins are struck from the same blanks as the Sac's, so that should probably be changed to read that magnese wasn't used again until the currnet dollar coins entered production. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 208.2.113.102 (talk) 15:34, 8 March 2007 (UTC).

dc?
On February 2, User:Amovrvs appended "dc" to several dates in the section about metal value. What, if anything, does this mean? &mdash;Tamfang (talk) 00:02, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

magnetism
nickel is magnetic. nickels are not. Why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.81.112.23 (talk) 13:22, 25 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Because they are 75% copper and only 25% nickel. In reality, they are slightly magnetic, just not enough to notice.  Bobby  I'm Here, Are You There? 15:14, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Metal value
Is it just me, or do the calculations in this section not make sense: "The price of pre-1982 US cents which weigh 3.1 grams are USD$0.02576016 which is 157.6% above face value metal content at market, and the post-1982 US cent which weigh 2.5 grams are USD$0.0683893 in metal content which is 68.4% metal content over face value." Anyone?

24.91.110.252 (talk) 02:02, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I concur, that doesn’t sound right to me either.--DavidD4scnrt (talk) 06:48, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

I think the intrinsic value state in the following sentence is off by one decimal place: "As of April 5, 2010, the value of the metal in a nickel is $0.6015744, 23.14% more than its face value." I think it should read $0.0615744. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cmrightmire (talk • contribs) 18:15, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

1913 Liberty Head V nickel contradiction
This section opens by saying the 1913 dates of this nickel are from "an unknown mint" and closes by saying they're from Philadelphia. Would be good to resolve this contradiction one way or the other. 67.169.24.155 (talk) 02:04, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

The end of the "silver" nickel
what year denomination ended the minting of silver nickels?

I want to be certain that this pile I have building is all silver for my collection. Murakumo-Elite (talk) 08:29, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I doubt that it is, but read Nickel (United States coin) for further info. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:21, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Mintage quantities
Does this section really belong here? Half the article is just a list of data. The Dime article has the same issue, and at least it cites a reference. Kanhef (talk) 05:05, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Mintage data
The mintage data in this article is unnecessary and should be removed. RHM22 (talk) 19:28, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I suspect you may be right (I'm the one who reverted your changes, and I can now see that they were good faith, but I had to go right down the diff to see that - removing kilobytes of article without an edit summary made me react a bit too quickly - see apology on your talk page).  I don't know if the best thing to do is delete the data completely, but I won't restore it again.  I can't spot where you removed the advertising, or I'd remove it now.  ChrisHodgesUK (talk) 18:40, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the note. I realize how a new member deleting something so large would raise suspicion. Perhaps I will reformat the mintage numbers as I did for V and shield nickels. Does anyone think that's a good idea? RHM22 (talk) 12:31, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Advertisement
Also, there's an advertisement in the article that I attempted to remove, but it was restored along with the unseemly mintage figures. RHM22 (talk) 19:31, 26 February 2010 (UTC)


 * I have removed the advertisement for PCGS in the 'Jefferson Nickel' section. RHM22 (talk) 12:31, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Long typing error in 1913 Liberty nickel section
'These coins were made famous by B. Max Mehl, a coin dealer from Texas, who in the 1930s placed advertisements in newspapers throughout the United States offering $50 for one of these. No one took him up on the offer, which was in reality an advertising ploy for his business (and its "Star Rare Coins Encyclopedia and Premium Catalogue"), but numismafftffifcsf cfrefditf hifs sfearfch fas fcontfribfutifng fto fincfreafsedf infterfestf finnh cojijn ucyoltlerctrinsg. sdTdhedref wfasg aglgfsfo dfand sadd placed in 1978 offering $500 for one. The price was later raised to $600.'

Stumbled across this error - I do not know the correct text Halleydog (talk) 18:40, 2 May 2011 (UTC) halleydog


 * Looks like it was vandalism -- lots of f's inserted -- but whatever caused it, it's been fixed already (not by me). I've taken the liberty of removing the leading spaces from your post here, which forced the text into preformatted mode and made your post hard to read. --Thnidu (talk) 17:27, 30 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Deleting the inserted letters yields ... Premium Catalogue"), but numismatics credit his search as contributing to increased interfest in coin collecting. There was also an ad placed in 1978 offering $500 for one. The price was later raised to $600. However, all four sentences seem to have been deleted in the last year and a half. 24.61.4.237 (talk) 23:35, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Mass: 5.000 g
There was a question, about the 5.000 g mass of the Buffalo nickel, with an answer referring to the end of a section in the Shield nickel article. I've put an ID there and linked the infobox mass entries to it, in this article and in all the nickel coin main articles it mentions. --Thnidu (talk) 17:34, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

war nickels exist
i have a 1943 S nickel they say they dont exist! those liers r so rong!
 * This article, both in September and now, indicate that the wartime nickels were made at all the mints. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:06, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

What are P, S & D?
At the top of the mintage quantities section can we please have definition of what P, S & D are after the year number. It would clarify things greatly. Thanks.1812ahill (talk) 21:29, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Done. S  B Harris 00:27, 12 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Explained in the article, but it doesn't hurt to put it that top of the list also. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:06, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

What info should be in the lede?
Considering the trivia there now, including the name of the guy on the 5 cent bill (who cares what his name was?), I think the removal of better history from the lede shows poor judgement. The term "nickel" predates 5-cent nickels by ten years. Pennys had also been called nicks or nickels ever since 1856 when the small copper-nickel cents replaced the very large pure copper cents, and had had nickel added, in order to change their color. And in 1866, when they were introduced, so-called "Shield nickels" had to be called "five-cent nickels" to differentiate them from particularly the "three-cent nickels" introduced a year before, and made of exactly the same alloy. In a lede, we'd like to know that nickel coins weren't always 5 cents, even in the US. S B Harris 01:33, 17 August 2012 (UTC)


 * The article's about the five-cent piece, and the lede is an executive summary of 146 years of its history. I think the hatnote is OK.  If you have a reliable source for what you said, I'm OK with adding it to the body, somewhere in the early part.--Wehwalt (talk) 02:22, 17 August 2012 (UTC)


 * I've reverted you only because you added a lot of stuff which isn't sourced to a reliable source. Can you tell me where you are getting that?  I don't want to discourage you because very few people are interested enough to edit this article so please don't take it the wrong way (though I understand you likely will).--Wehwalt (talk) 02:32, 17 August 2012 (UTC)


 * The compositions of these various coins are very common historical knowledge, available in their wiki articles (with references) and in various numismatic books and articles. For 1856 Flying Eagles being called "nicks" see . Also see for composition . There's nothing in the least controversial about the idea that three-cent pieces in copper-nickel (which continued to be make along side the 5-cent coins) were called three-cent nickels (that is their common coin collecting name-- google it) and those in silver called three-cent silvers. The rest of what I wrote was simply putting things in historical order, and doing some WP:CALC things that I don't need to have a reference for. I can multiply and divide and so should you be able to. In short, what is your problem here? On Wikipedia we don't do mass reversions like this unless we don't believe the information or it's clearly vandalism. Reversion is for vandalism not because somebody added something with no reference (we use  tags for that). Reversion is not intended to keep your pristine FA article that you WP:OWN in pristine FA condition, like you had it between two peices of cardboard labeled "VF" or something. You're missing the point.  S  B Harris 03:03, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Alright, let me look those over and take a shot at it if it's OK.--Wehwalt (talk) 03:43, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Melt or Smelt?
It says melt in the article, but isn't really suppose to read as Smelt? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.75.10.80 (talk) 06:55, 9 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Melt is the more common term.--Wehwalt (talk) 10:14, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

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old money
i have a few dimes and a 1963 copper dime  dimes here and one is 1977 the other is 1913 and a 1046 and a small nickle thats 1927 i think im just wanting to know how much there worth  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Patricia549 (talk • contribs) 18:35, 17 January 2018 (UTC)
 * We do not do valuations but if you contact the American Numismatic Association in Colorado Springs, they often advise people about such things. Good luck.--Wehwalt (talk) 20:16, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

The word "present" should be deleted wherever it occurs in this article.
The word "present" should not be used in articles like this one, since the present immediately becomes the past, & is likely to not be true in little time. Instead of present, use the date of the present. Could the editor who used "present" please revise the article. (PeacePeace (talk) 17:27, 24 April 2020 (UTC))

Josh Tatum
When one searches Josh Tatum, a redirect takes you to this article via Nickel (United States coin)#Liberty Head or "V" nickel (1883–1913). I am unable to locate Tatum on the page. Cynwolfe (talk) 14:03, 22 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I should note that my issue is not whether the Josh Tatum folktale is true or whether it should be included in this article. It's that someone looking up Josh Tatum on Wikipedia will be directed to a section that is uninformative. The folk etymology itself, regardless of whether it's too trivial to include in this article, might be notable and worth verifying as something that people have shared as a true story but which appears to be an invention after the fact. And a link shouldn't leave users wondering why there is no explanation of the thing they're looking for when there is an actual entry and redirect. Cynwolfe (talk) 14:12, 22 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I've changed it to Liberty Head nickel.--Wehwalt (talk) 14:14, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

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The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:26, 4 July 2021 (UTC)
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Instead of "citation needed," read....
Instead of "citation needed," read: See section 2,"The Financial Panic of 1914 led to the emergence of an additional meaning of the word jitney," in Gold 2018-2019.

Gold, David L. 2018-2019. “Pursuing the origin of the American English informalism gitney ~ jitney: On the alleged Louisiana French word *jetnée and the fallacy of omne ignotum pro magnifico in etymological research.” Leuvense Bijdragen: Leuven Contributions in Linguistics and Philology. Vol. 102-103. Pp. 383-417 S. Valkemirer (talk) 21:39, 9 May 2022 (UTC)